


Office Breaks

by bittersweetwhimsy



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Office, M/M, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, i;ll update relationship tags as this goes along, jun doesn't actually appear until chapter 14, very slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2018-11-30 05:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 17,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11457255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bittersweetwhimsy/pseuds/bittersweetwhimsy
Summary: Minghao works in a science research building. Honestly sometimes work gets crazy. Crazy silly with his coworkers and their strange lifestyles.





	1. Cats

**Author's Note:**

> hi i'm bad at doing things linearly, so this is just gonna start in the middle of the story. i will go back to the beginning, but this seemed like a fun place to start. Parts of this are based on conversations i have with my coworkers....

“My cat’s a dick. He was up at 4 this morning causing a racket with the wifi cable. Then he knocked over the picture frames on the dresser.” Wonwoo sighs into his lunch. Today it was 8 chicken nuggets. And the classic cosmic brownie.

  
“Oooh. What’s your cat’s name?” Seokmin looks up from his phone at the mention of a pet.

  
“Tony Tony Choppurr. My husband’s idea. He loves One Piece.” Only 3 pieces of chicken nuggets are left.

  
Seokmin audibly gasps that the whole table hears him. “INGENIUS. WHEN. CAN. I. MEET. THEM?”

“Aren’t you a dog person?” Mingyu sends Seokmin a betrayed judgmental look.

“A soft cuddly pet is a pet worth meeting and petting.” Seokmin states without missing a beat. “Also, I love One Piece. Wonwoo’s cat has a fantastic name.”

“Thanks, I’ll tell Jun.”

“How come you don’t want to hear about my dog?” Mingyu pouts.

“Mingyu, you talk about your dog all the time. All. The. Time.” Minghao emphasizes the last part as much as possible.

Jihoon puts down his spoon, “Have you seen your desk?”

Mingyu’s desk is covered in photos of his dog. That photo calendar on his desk? His dog models for all 14 months. Mingyu himself took the photos. The quote of the day book, his dog is the background on every single page. All 10 framed photos on his desk are of him and his dog ( ~~don’t tell his family~~ ).

“My dog is great and I can’t believe you guys are tired hearing about her.” Once again, the dog owner pouts.

“Okay, he pouted for the tenth time during lunch today. I think I’m sitting next to a kid.” Minghao announces to the table. Mingyu’s bottom lip sticks out more. Jihoon and Wonwoo are both snickering. Jeonghan sends Minghao a look, that the latter purposely avoids looking at. “I’ll see you guys later.” He exits the cafeteria as fast as possible while the others wave bye.

The remaining five men disperse into their own conversations.

Jihoon whispers to Jeonghan “Did you cause that?”

“Does Paula Dean pour an entire bottle of ranch into her layered dessert because the recipe called for it?” Jeonghan sips his tea.

“Why is it cooking show host references with you? And at least show me the video you’re referring to before making references.” With Jeonghan, all you will get are cryptic responses with cooking show hosts when it comes to him and his meddling ways. Jeonghan pulls out his phone with the video ready.

And no. The recipe called for ¼ bottle of ranch. Does Paula care? Paula only cares that she loves ranch so much, the 7-layered dish gets a whole damn bottle.  
Which is to say, Jeonghan cares for his juniors, whether they need his help or not is another thing.


	2. Petunias

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mingyu figuring out what to get his mom for mother's day. dabhao makes an appearance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this chapter went backwards in the timeline.

“Are petunias a good gift for moms?”

“Well it’s a better present than socks.”

“Minghao, when does Tina’s trial end?”

“Mingyu no.”

“My mom doesn’t want anything related to Candy.”

“Mingyu, you give your poor mother something related to Candy twice a year.”

“But Candy is her grandpuppy! Of course, I gotta spoil my mom with pictures of her grandpuppy.”

Minghao raises an eyebrow. “Don’t you send her a pic of the dog every day?”

“She’s up to date on everything about Candy.”

“And you wonder why she doesn’t want anything related to your dog,” Minghao mutters. “Do you have any other ideas about what to get your mom?”

“Not really. The other guys weren’t that helpful. Jihoon said he was going to get his mom cooking ware. Seokmin said something about making his mom brunch. Wonwoo is taking his mom out somewhere nice.”

Minghao stares down Mingyu. “…Why don’t any of those ideas work for you?”

Mingyu starts to list out everything with his fingers, “My mom hates cooking. That’s the reason I’m so good at it. She was just bad at it and knew it. My mom refuses to eat my cooking unless we have relatives to impress because then she won’t cook or eat anyone’s else cooking for a month. She also hates getting dressed up. Do you see why I’m struggling here?” 

“But that doesn’t explain why you want Tina’s petunias.”

“C’mon Minghao. If she’s done with them, she’s just going to compost them all. They’re a good looking batch this time from what I’ve heard.”

“Does your mom even like petunias?” 

“Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her grow petunias.”

“Mingyu.” Minghao facepalms. He starts massaging his forehead for a headache he can feel developing. Is this why Jihoon keeps a bottle of ibuprofen in his drawer? 

“But what about you? What are you doing for Mother’s Day?” 

Minghao smiles wryly, “Giving my mom a break from me. I’ll be in Spain during Mother’s Day.”

“That’s pretty lame of you. You better get her something nice then.” The other retorts.

“It’ll be better than whatever you get your mom. Which is currently a pot of petunias that finished a trial.” 

“Minghaoooooooo, please help me.” The man unleashes his puppy eyes with a whine. Minghao swears he could almost see droopy puppy ears and tail. 

Minghao sighs. “How exactly should I help you with this?”

“I need more ideas, but I’m clueless. Come with me to the Galleria this weekend.”

“Amazon is a thing. It’s where you can get gift ideas and avoid people.” 

“Minghao don’t be such a recluse. It’s good to go outside and get some sun,” Mingyu chides.

“The Galleria is an indoor shopping mall. “He puts his hand up in mock surprise. “Oh burn. What now?” Minghao dabs, exiting the cubicle.


	3. Avocado Shots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao returns from his vacation in Spain to a morning of complaints

“You’re back! How was Spain?” 

Minghao sighs. It’s too early in the morning to be dealing with such an excited person. Honestly, it’s not even 8 yet. “Morning Mingyu.” He sits at his portion of the cubicle drinking canned coffee, contemplating whether he should’ve just stayed in Spain. 

“Can you believe there are people that use avocados instead of cups for coffee? What kind of heathens would do that? It’s just easier to use a fucking cup. You can reuse it and not have disgusting green bits in your coffee.” A short man with brown hair making exasperated hand motions with a man that is the embodiment of the sun walked into the shared cubicle. 

“Ah, Minghao welcome back. Good to see you in one piece.” 

“Good morning Seokmin. Jihoon.” A wave and small smile for the hundred-watt-smile man and a nod toward the latter. “So what brought up the avocado discussion?” 

“Jihoon was talking about how he saw a buzzfeed article about how to go green.-”

Jihoon cuts in, “Listen that is the single most disgusting thing I ever read. Go green by using a reusable cup like a normal person. What part of that even works?” Mingyu raises his hand. “Mingyu let me finish before you try to reason this nonsense. Also, espresso shot avocados are an abomination. CHUNKS OF AVOCADO WHILE TAKING A SHOT OF COFFEE?!”

“Jihoon, let’s calm down. How about checking on those cells? I know Jungah was asking for the results of those the other day.” Seokmin attempts to calm down the aggravated man. 

“Ah you’re right. I’m behind on those. See you guys later.” Jihoon puts down his bag and zips out of the cubicle with his safety glasses.

Mingyu sighs into his French pressed coffee. “I was going to say they’re not that bad.”

“I knew it. You’re disgusting in more ways than one.” Minghao retorts. Seokmin snorts as Minghao grabs his headphones and leaves the cubicle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay if i actually took time to look for this article mentioned in this chapter it would blow your minds.


	4. Alpaca Steak 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> farmers markets are wild

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for now im going to try to post everyday.... sorry the late update today.. there was just a lot of things happening at once

“Dude, they sell alpaca meat at the farmer’s market near Wonwoo’s place!” Soonyoung crashes into the lab. 

Minghao looks up from his work. Guess counting seeds can wait. 

“Did you buy any?” Mingyu asks without looking up.  
“Yeah I bought 2 lbs of it and put it in Wonwoo’s fridge.” A huge grin decorates Soonyoung’s face.

“Is it any good? How do you cook it?” Mingyu stops his work to start asking the serious questions.

“Dude, I just said I put it in Wonwoo’s fridge. I probably won’t cook ‘til this weekend.” Soonyoung leans against the wall. “Ah but you should totally go there, Mingyu. There’s a lot of good deals on produce. And there’s other stands like one place that sells shark meat, another sells rabbit meat, and then there’s Grandma that sells nuts.”

Nope, counting seeds are better than whatever nonsense this is about to turn into. Minghao resumes his task  
.  
“Shark meat… in the MIDDLE of the United States?!” Seokmin stares wide eyed at Soonyoung.

“That’s what bothers you? It’s not the cute widdle wabbits that are being sold for food?” Jeonghan appears from one the side doors to the lab. 

“Jeonghan, why are you here? This isn’t your lab.” Mingyu points out.

“Well I’m waiting for something to finish being frozen. So, I thought I would check on you guys~.” Jeonghan takes the opportunity to pinch Mingyu’s cheek. “Make sure you’re all working.” He also pats Seokmin’s head. “Was worried you guys would be slacking.”

“Really us? Slacking? Wow Jeonghan Yoon, you really think we WOULD be the slackers?” Mingyu looks at the blond male expectantly.

The blond grins at the judging male. “Since all of you are working diligently, I can take my leave as guardian.” He grabs Soonyoung on his way out. Soonyoung waves dramatically good bye to the trio.

Mingyu turns back to his work station scoffing, “Honestly, the audacity of that guy.”

The sounds of seeds shuffling around and the stapler can be heard for 20 golden seconds of silence.

“Who wants to go with me to buy alpaca meat?” Minghao groans. “I need to know how they taste and the best way to season it. Do you think they would offer me some tips on how to cook it?” Mingyu begins spewing his cooking questions. 

Seokmin responds noncommittedly with ‘maybes’, knowing there’s no stopping Mingyu when he’s like this.

This goes on for another 10 minutes of what seasoning what work based on what alpaca meat tastes like. Sadly, Minghao cannot throw any of the seeds he’s counting at Mingyu because in the end, he’ll be cleaning it up if he does. …Is it worth it? Well how many unusable seeds does he have to use?

20 minutes later Minghao and Mingyu are being scolded by Jihoon. There’s enough seeds on the floor that could’ve filled 2 packets. Some seeds are in Minghao’s and Mingyu’s hair. Seokmin is apologizing to each seed he’s picking up. It was definitely worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there is actually a farmers market about 20 min from where i live that does sell all of those things mentioned


	5. WEIRD FACT OF THE DAY 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> very short chapter consisting of a weird fact that you probably didn't know.The other details of Mingyu's desk in the cubicle come to light.

Jihoon comes in one morning to work late. Says nothing to anyone else and just slumps into his chair. Just silence for 20 minutes. That’s nothing unusual, but the fact he hasn’t even logged into the computer is disturbing. Minghao looks over curiously at the brunet. 

“Jihoon are you okay?” Minghao waves his hand in front of the former’s eyes.

“IS THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA OKAY?” Jihoon shoots up. “They decided that watermelon is the state vegetable back in 2007. That’s still too recent for them to be ignorant about it.”

Seokmin pats the shorter man’s back, “Jihoon is that why I didn’t see you on the bus this morning? You stayed up all night contemplating what was wrong with Oklahoma?”

“Well, I mean watermelon does grow like other vegetables. Plus, you can also eat the rind of a watermelon.” Mingyu adds. “Ooohhhh. I should make watermelon rind soup this week.” 

“Mingyu Kim, you are not helping the situation. Leave or shut up.” Jihoon glares at Mingyu. 

The taller man shut ups and returns to his computer.

“My brain hurts from thinking about this. I’m going to go get coffee.” Jihoon stands up.

“Jihoon, you just got here.”

“Yeah thanks for pointing out the obvious Captain Obvious Mingyu, and now I’m leaving for coffee,” Jihoon responds. “See you all later. Seokmin, make sure to turn in your report to me by 4 today.”

“He could’ve just asked me to make coffee,” Mingyu pouts. “I have 3 coffee makers.” 

“Honestly I’m with Jihoon. I would rather go buy coffee then trust you to make mine without sneezing into it.” Minghao comments.

“It’s okay Mingyu. Can I get a café mocha, soy milk, and hazelnut please?” Seokmin comforts the other man.

“I got you man,” Mingyu pulls out soy milk from the mini fridge he keeps under his desk. In Minghao’s opinion, the mini fridge is the most normal thing he’s seen at Mingyu’s portion of the cubicle. If you ignore how all the magnets are either of Mingyu and his dog, his dog, and his dog with friends. To the left of Mingyu’s monitor is a whole rack of syrups and additional condiments for coffee making. How did Mingyu get away with having all of this at his desk? Obviously by making upper management coffee for 3 whole months every morning. That and having his desk surrounded by pictures of his dog were enough to make everyone fine with his little coffee bar set up.

Four minutes later, Seokmin has his café mocha brewed to his tastes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when will i throw in plot? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ hopefully sometime next week  
> but it is true oklahoma did pick watermelon as their official state vegetable.


	6. The Usual

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> soonyooung's the usual order

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry guys for a short chapter! it's been a hectic weekend for me.

“Yo Haooo~,” Soonyoung slings his arms around Minghao at the line for pasta.

“Yo man what’s up?” Minghao responds.

“When you leave, do you turn left or right?” Both men take two steps forward. 

“Leave from where?” The cook at the pasta station gives him a look. “Uhhh can I get the long pasta with peppers, onions, and sausage please? Oh, and the red sauce too.” Minghao tells the cook.

“Leave from work, silly. Hey Wally, can I get the usual?” Soonyoung grins at the pasta station cook. The cook sighs and grabs the “usual”.

Minghao watches as the cook pulls out a gigantic jar of honey alongside a bowl of chicken tenders from underneath the bar. He leans to the perpetrator of this request, “Soonyoung, what the fuck? Neither of those are part of the pasta bar.”

“It is when I stop by.” 

“How did you manage to get that set up?”

Soonyoung rubs his hands together, mischievously, “Cause I get Wally the goods.”

The chatter of other conversations in the cafeteria and the sound of the grill fill the empty silence Minghao leaves behind, unsure of how to respond to Soonyoung’s last sentence. When his pasta is done, Minghao dashes to the register to avoid asking Soonyoung questions that he will most definitely regret asking.   
At the table, the guys are discussing baseball. To be more accurate, it’s just Jihoon and Seokmin. Jeonghan is on his phone, Wonwoo and Mingyu are showing each other new recipes they tried out this week. 

“I’m proud of my boys. We got to go to Nashville this past weekend for the championship. These tots are my greatest treasure.” Jihoon proudly swipes through his photos of his little league team to Seokmin. 

“Mingyu, Junhui tried this barbeque sauce for ribs and it was pretty ribby.” Mingyu groans at the lame pun.

Jeonghan notices Minghao approaching the table. He waves the latter to the chair next to him, “My sunflower~. How’s your morning going?”

Minghao sighs at the nickname, “I just witnessed Soonyoung get honey and chicken tenders added to his pasta.”

“Don’t worry~. It’s just something only Soonyoung can get away with. Mingyu, here is hated by all the cooks.”

Mingyu looks up at the mention of his name. “Hey if they can cook what I ask for then it’s fine.”

“Not everyone asks for a 5-star restaurant style dish here Mingyu.” Wonwoo replies between bites of off-brand pizza rolls. He turns to Minghao, “This is why Mingyu has to bring his own lunch every day while he works here. He’s pissed off every single cook.”

“Why would you hire cooks that can’t cook?”

“Mingyu, just get your taste buds removed then. They need the cooks to give us, peasants, food.”

The table snorts and laughs. 

“Oh? Did Mingyu get roasted by Minghao again?” Soonyoung comes up to the table with an enormous bowl of alfredo pasta covered in honey and chicken tenders. “Someone give me the deets.” He has his hands underneath his chin waiting expectantly.

“Mingyu’s taste buds got roasted. But not to oblivion since he still has to bring his own lunch still.” Jihoon quips.

“One day Mingyu. You’ll be allowed back in that part of the cafeteria.” Soonyoung sighs dramatically into his pasta.

Mingyu just wants one day of peace during lunch. Just one day.


	7. 3 Days Old Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 3 day old coffee leads to signs of fondness?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ at this point, this is a crack fic

Today was one of those late days for Minghao. He didn’t have time to brew his coffee this morning while trying to leave ten minutes within his last alarm of the morning wake up call. It didn’t help either that he needed to go into work early. Luckily there’s a coffee pot at work. Unluckily it’s not freshly brewed. The coffee that pours out has no steam. Today is Monday. That means this is 3 days old coffee. Caffeine is caffeine and he’s neither Mingyu or Jihoon on the pickiness of coffee quality. He fills up his tumbler with the old coffee and ice, throws in tons of creamer and sugar to hopefully not be able to taste how old the coffee is. 

At the cubicle, he can definitely taste it. Minghao snapchats the others of his poor decision.

Seokmin bursts in, loudly whispering “MINGHAO ARE YOU OKAY. DO WE NEED TO PURGE OUT YOUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM?”

Minghao nearly spits out his coffee at the sudden arrival. “N-no need Seokmin. I’m not going to die. You’re here early-”

“Seokmin, why did you sprint all the way to the cubicle from the bus stop?” An exhausted man leans on the cubicle wall, panting. 

Minghao raises an eyebrow. Jihoon glares at Minghao, daring him to question why Jihoon has chased after the sunshine man. Minghao sips his nasty coffee in response.

“Minghao! Couldn’t you have waited until Mingyu got here?” Seomkin cries in exasperation. “Why would you torture yourself with coffee that the other side uses?”

Minghao points to his bare wrist. “Do you know what time it is?” Seokmin’s eyebrows furrow in. “It’s Mingyu won’t come in until 7:30 O’clock. It is now-,“ He glances at his phone. “-7:00. I’m not going to wait thirty minutes for Mingyu to come in. I can just get free shitty coffee now, that will kick in by the time Mingyu comes in.”

“Wow you don’t even need coffee to be bitter. All the bitterness is brewing inside of you,” Seokmin sighs. 

“Impressive. I’m taking him under my wings.” Jihoon extends a hand out to Minghao. The latter accepts.

“Jihoon no! Your bitterness toward everything is strong enough. We don’t need twice the bitterness here.” 

“Seokmin.”

“Yes, Jihoon?”

“Has my bitterness hurt someone’s feeling?”

“Yes, mine and Mingyu’s.”

“Do they hurt for long?”

“No, but-“

“Then it’s all good.”

Seokmin sighs in defeat. “At least be more tactful. You’re turning 29 this year.” He pleads. ”Minghao, please please don’t end up being a bitter 29 year old man. He makes everyone exasperated.”

“Hey. I. Am. Right. Here.” Jihoon pokes Seokmin’s side at each interval. The sunshine man beams soft rays of light towards the shorter man.

Minghao can’t believe he wants Mingyu to arrive soon to save him from this atmosphere. 

“Hey Jihoon, I need your- Oh hey Minghao. What a surprise to see you here this early.” Wonwoo pops his head into the cubicle. Minghao nods his head at Wonwoo, grateful for the other’s intrusion.

He takes the opportunity to escape to the greenhouse.   
It’s too early in the morning for fond feelings of affection before anytime.


	8. Honey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> another lunch table discussion: this time revolving around honey and cats

“Does anyone know what makes honey not vegan?” Soonyoung ponders out loud during lunch.

“It’s because their wings can get injured, causing bits of bee to be in the honey,” Wonwoo responds immediately. Everyone stares at Wonwoo in shock. Wonwoo slurps at his ramen. His lunch today consists of the 99 cent chicken ramen and a cosmic brownie. “There’s this thing called a smart phone. And you can access the internet for wondrous knowledge. It’s a phoneamenal invention.”

Half the table chokes.

“Okay smart-ass. Horrible pun. Did you know you can feed honey to babies?” Soonyoung points his fork at the ramen eating man. Before Wonwoo can respond, the former immediately turns to Minghao and stage whispers with eyes widening, “NO YOU CAN’T.”

Minghao nearly chokes on his fried rice. Reasons why sitting next to Soonyoung during lunch can be dangerous: you never know when he’s going to turn to you to confide in something stupid. The previous week, Soonyoung whispered that he was going to be pooping ketchup as a result of eating a 2-pound heirloom tomato for lunch. Minghao may or may not have recovered from dying laughing alongside Seokmin.

Once again Seokmin is crying laughing at Soonyoung. Jihoon has a cup of water ready for when Seokmin ends up choking on his spit. Mingyu spilled his sun-dried tomato vodka sauce on his lap. Jeonghan is recording the chaos as usual. 

Wonwoo sighs. “Soonyoung, I hope you never have children.” 

Soonyoung stares at Wonwoo from across the table, picking up his uneaten cucumber. “If I came over to your house with this, I would be alpha cat.”

“Neither Jun or I are cats.”

“Guys really? This conversation again?” Jihoon slams down his spoon. “Soonyoung Kwon. I am not joining you guys at your bonfire this weekend. If this is all you’re gonna do.” He gives Soonyoung one last glare before leaving the table. “That gigantic jar of honey I have is staying with me even if I don’t go.” Jihoon gathers his things and leaves with a hmph. “Mingyu, be lucky the tomato paste didn’t land on your crotch.” Soonyoung and Wonwoo quickly follow Jihoon trying to place the blame on the other. Mingyu whines while trying to wipe it off with napkins. 

Seokmin and Minghao watch the man try to clean his jeans, but the man is doing a shit job. 

“Mingyu, you’re making the stain bigger, you dolt. Come here.” Minghao waves Mingyu over. Mingyu attempts to stand up. Some of the sauce spills down Mingyu’s thigh. “Damn it Mingyu sit down.” Minghao gets up to go sit next to Mingyu to clean up the sauce. He grabs a cup of water to pour a bit of water on to the napkin.

“Wow this would make a great porno intro.” 

“Jeonghan, surely you could’ve said that when we’re not in the cafeteria.” Seokmin comments.

There was no reassurance in the chesire smile Jeonghan gave. 

Minghao throws the wet napkins at Mingyu. “Just dab at the stain you idiot.” He grabs his lunch box and leaves behind a laughing Seokmin, a distressed Mingyu, and clearly plotting Jeonghan at the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cats are scared of cucumbers because they think they're snakes.   
> also the honey statement is based off what my coworker said. but you know the internet is totally trust worthy...  
> also a 2 pound heirloom tomato is gigantic. its as big as an adult head.


	9. Alpaca Steak 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> continuation of the alpaca meat

“Junhui is surprisingly good at handling unexpected meat,” Soonyoung brings up in the middle of lunch after a lull in conversations. 

Wonwoo nearly chokes on his lunch of microwavable dinner box consisting of Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, corn, and brownie, that looks more like a lump of turd. Jihoon pounds Wonwoo’s back. “Soonyoung, phrasing and wording.” Wonwoo wheezes.

“I’m taking it that the bonfire went well then?” Jeonghan asks in between bites of his sandwich. 

“Kwon fire happened but other than that, everything went smoothly. We tried the alpaca steaks Soonyoung got two weeks ago.”

Mingyu slams his hands on the table. “HOW DO YOU COOK ALPACA STEAK? DID YOU CHARBROIL IT OR JUST COOK IT ON THE OPEN FIRE?” Seokmin’s cup tips over, spilling water.

“Mingyu, again?” Minghao chastises, while handing a bunch of napkins to Seokmin. Mingyu blushes.

“For someone who works with plants, why didn’t you know you can’t just throw corn on the fire to make popcorn?” Jihoon asks.

“Excuse you, I work on seed germination for peppers. How am I supposed to know about how corn work?” Jihoon rolls his eyes at Soonyoung’s comment.

“Are you sure you’re qualified to be working on that?”

“Wow did you hear that Jeonghan? I think that was my food talking to me.” Soonyoung holds up his lettuce head. “Uh huh. I see. Amazing. Wonwoo Jeon is a fucking betrayer.” The younger half of the group snorts. 

“I hope you know you look crazy.” Jihoon turns his attention to Mingyu, “The steaks were okay. Nothing special.”

“Okay, but what do they taste like?” 

“Like a combination of llama and cow,” Soonyoung quips.

Minghao mutters under his breath where does one even get llama to try it in the first place.

Mingyu gives Soonyoung a look. “Soonyoung what does llama taste like? If you say chicken I’m leaving.”

“I would never offend chickens in that manner!” A thought crosses Soonyoung’s face. “But….”

“Soonyoung don’t you dare. I saw that look cross your face!”

Wonwoo smirks, “Chicken. Now leave.”

“Damn it, Wonwoo.”

“Savage.” Soonyoung whispers.

“Mingyu, you can join me in my lab~.” Jeonghan coos at the man packing up. 

“You’re not done with your sandwich though,” Seokmin points out.

“It’s fine, I can finish it later for when I’m bored. Thanks for worrying about me, Seokminnie.” Jeonghan collects his things to walk out with Mingyu.

“The meat was pretty good. But you’ll have to buy some, we ate it all.” Wonwoo calls to the leaving figures. Mingyu sends him the stink eye.

“So, if Junhui is good at cooking, why are you always eating lunches like a poor college student?” Minghao finally asks.

“Oh, that’s cause Junnie is always taking the leftovers for his lunch.” Soonyoung lightens up at the mention of Wonwoo’s lunches, “Wonwoo doesn’t want anyone to steal away his husband. I think you would like him.”

Jihoon hums, “He might be a bit much at first.”

“First of all, I am not worried about anyone stealing Junhui. Junhui is just a little bit naïve and very touchy.” Wonwoo sighs. “Would you like to meet Junhui? He could help you out if you still need help adjusting to the area.”

“I’ll think about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so when will wonwoo's husband actually make a physical appearance? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> next week i'm going to rearrange the chapters, so that they're in a more chronological order, if you rather me not, please tell me no.


	10. Strawberry Soup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> why Soonyoung is known as Kwon fire

“What is that?” Jihoon points at Soonyoung’s soup.

“The sign said strawberry soup.”

Minghao peers into the soup bowl. The soup looks as pink as strawberry ice cream and slightly frothy.

“Is it warm?” Mingyu looks over.

“Nope. It’s pretty cold.”

“Are you sure it’s not melted ice cream they just chose to serve?”

Soonyoung takes a sip. “Tastes like strawberry ice cream.” He starts dipping his carrot in it.

Seokmin responds, “Do you think there’s chocolate and vanilla soup in the back?”

“There better be chocolate mint then.” Jihoon takes a bite of his yogurt.

Mingyu pauses mid bite of his soufflé when he sees Soonyoung eating. “STOP. WHAT ARE YOU DOING SOONYOUNG?”

“Eating strawberry soup.” Another slurp.

“WHAT ARE YOU EATING YOUR SOUP WITH?”

“A carrot.” Wonwoo and Seokmin are snickering.

“Did you burn your taste buds?”

Wonwoo mutters “That’s not the only thing he’s burnt.”

Jeonghan, sitting on Wonwoo’s left, smiles. “Soonyoung how bad of a cook are you? According to Wonwoo, you’ve burnt other things.”

“Jeonghan, he’s the reason I don’t live with anyone.” Jihoon throws out.

Mingyu and Seokmin look aghast. Jeonghan has a light bulb moment. “Ahhh so that’s why you live in Seokmin’s complex.” Soonyoung at least looks a little guilty.

Minghao leans over to Mingyu, “What happened?”

“Soonyoung tried making fried chicken and burned half the townhouse he and Jihoon were living in. Jihoon lost a lot of things.” Mingyu whispers back.  “He’s also nearly burnt down Wonwoo’s house. That’s why he’s called Kwon Fire.”

“They’re explainable and not stupid….” Jihoon and Wonwoo both send him a glare. “Okay, explainable and partially stupid. But anyways I like my veggies to have a flair of taste.”

“I can’t believe you think the flavor your carrot needs is some possible melted ice cream.”

“Okay Mingyu, how do you eat your raw carrots?”

“With ranch or hummus.”

“Everyone else?”

“I don’t have time for this nonsense.” Jihoon excuses himself from the table.

“Rude.”

“Hummus is pretty good. Especially if it’s roasted red pepper.” Seokmin says.

“Ranch is sufficient for me. Ooh or blue cheese.” Wonwoo brings up.

“I don’t eat carrots,” Jeonghan nonchalantly brings up.

“Jeonghan you’re approaching your 30s. Don’t you think you should be less picky by now?” Mingyu questions.

“I can be healthy without having carrots in my diet.”

“This is why your glasses lenses are so thick and why Joshua won’t stop complaining about it.” Wonwoo comments.

“Guess we can say you could carrot less about your vision.”

Everyone groans at Soonyoung’s pun with the exception of Seokmin, who’s laughing hard enough to fall out of his chair.


	11. Just Meet Him Please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo forces Minghao to meet his husband. 96 line loves Jun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> very short chapter. very dead from writing a different story that i stayed up til 3 to write....

“Minghao will you please come visit Junhui?” Wonwoo pops his head into the cubicle. “All he does is make spicy Chinese food. It’s filling up our freezer and fridge.”

“Don’t you love Junhui’s Chinese food cooking?” Jihoon questions.

“I do. But he’s been making it nonstop for two weeks now. There’s only two of us, and we can only eat so much.”

“I didn’t ask him to make Chinese food.”

“Did he make chicken feet?”

“Mingyu, I’ve banned Junhui from making those, because he insists on making those fresh. The last time he made them….” Wonwoo shudders from the memory. Mingyu pouts. “Just come over this weekend. You have my number.”

Minghao sighs. “What if I have plans?”

“Do you?” “YOU DO?!” Wonwoo and Mingyu simultaneously question.

“No.” He glares at Mingyu.

“Perfect. I’m going to text Junhui, saying you’re coming over Saturday.”

“What if I don’t show up?”

“I’m going to assign you work from me. So, you can suffer with Seokmin.” Jihoon responds icily. Minghao spits out his drink. He was not expecting Jihoon’s response.

Wonwoo nods. “Well there you have it.” He leaves to go back to his lab.

Well there goes Minghao’s weekend of avoiding social interaction.


	12. Walking Cats 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wonwoo shows off his cats

“Last night Junhui tried walking the cats. They weren’t having it.”

“In this heat? I would too if I were them.” Jihoon looks at Wonwoo like he was crazy for letting Junhui attempting it. This week was the hottest week of the month. The highs reached up to 103 degrees.

“We didn’t make it out the door. The cats got as far as the main hallway before completely quitting.” Wonwoo responds.

“Do you have a video of it?” Minghao was surprised this was actually a thing. Most cats he knew just ran around inside or wandered around outside as they please.

“Did they like the harnesses Soonyoung got for them?” Seokmin asks.

“Hang on let me find the video.” Wonwoo pulls out his phone. He hands his phone too Jihoon and Seokmin first. Seokmin beams like the sun. The video brings out a small chuckle from Jihoon.

Minghao and Mingyu get to look at the video next. It’s an orange kitty with a harness on. It takes a few steps and then army crawls another few steps. There’s a soft voice in the background trying to coax the cat. It must be Jun.

“C’mon Tony Tony Choppurr. Just a few more steps. I believe in you!”

“Junhui, I really don’t think he’s going-,“ Wonwoo’s deep voice makes an appearance.

“See! Look who’s a good kitty. Choppurr is~.” The cat army crawls some more. “But I don’t think Shakespurr is gonna make it.” The camera turns behind the two men to a gray cat that’s laying in the hallway.

“Nonsense. Shakespurr is taking his time.”

Junhui’s voice is laced with amusement. “Like how timeless Shakespeare’s plays are?”

“Hey you enjoy his works too!”

The video ends.

Minghao looks up from the screen. “If he puns and makes jokes like you, Soonyoung, and Seokmin I’m leaving right that second,” He says handing back the phone to the owner.

“At least ditch after Junhui’s cooking. Wonwoo needs fridge space.” Mingyu comments.

“Correction, Soonyoung needs fridge space.”

Minghao stops midway from grabbing his earbuds, “Wait… does Soonyoung live with you and Junhui?”

“Yeah. He lives in our spare bedroom.”

Well this explains many things: why they arrive and leave together, why they’re always hanging out outside of work, and eating each other’s cooking….

“Are you sure you’re not with Soonyoung too?”  Minghao looks at Wonwoo skeptically.

The two eldest in the cubicle start busting with laughter.

“Soo-soonyoung and me dating?” Wonwoo wheezes out. Jihoon is laughing so hard, he’s tearing up.

Minghao sighs. Sometimes he wonders why he bothers talking with his coworkers.

“Soonyoung and Wonwoo are high school friends. In the words of Wonwoo: We’re brothers from another mother.” Seokmin explains.

“I see…”He looks at the two collapsed men dying of laughter. He doesn’t get it.


	13. Shower Orange 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soonyoung sends a snap, captioned shower orange  
> Jihoon is so done with all these food trends

It’s a quiet morning. Probably because it’s 6:50 in the morning and no one else from the cubicle is in yet. Minghao came in early to get several things done. As he’s preparing the hood to make new plates for the fungi, his phone screen flashes. It’s Snapchat. He unlocks the screen. It’s from Soonyoung. Minghao hesitantly opens it.

It’s a picture of Soonyoung’s face. In the shower. He’s holding an orange. The caption says Shower orange time y’all!

The next snapchat is a video. The sounds of the shower can be heard as Soonyoung shoves an orange in his mouth.

The next snap is of the orange peel at his feet, captioned: shower orange: a success.

How is his phone not damaged? Also, just why?

Minghao puts down his phone. Takes off his headphone. Switches off the UV light to the on light. Opens the hood. Hoping the loud screeching noise of the hood vent will clear whatever he saw.

Forty plates and 25 minutes later, Mingyu bursts into the lab. “Minghao! Did you see Soonyoung’s snap?”

“Unfortunately,” The brunet sighs.

“I can’t believe he went through with it. He wouldn’t stop talking about it yesterday. I gotta try this now.”

“Please don’t send me photos of you trying it out.”

Mingyu looks at Minghao. “That request has been politely declined. Now I’m going to go make my rounds of coffee, if you excuse me.”

“You busted in here, you oaf.” Minghao utters under his breath. He turns his attention back to the last two plates.

Jihoon and Seokmin enter the lab also talking about the shower orange. “Jihoon it’s really refreshing. It makes your shower zesty.”

“But why would you even other eating while showering? What is even the point?”

“The juices are washed away, so you’re not covered in citrus juice.”

“There is something called a sink, that can be used after eating citrus.”

“Seokmin, did you cause Soonyoung to try shower orange?” Minghao interrupts their argument.

“Soonyoung saw the article on vice and reddit and showed me. Said it seems life changing enough to try. So why not?” Seokmin shrugs. “It was exactly like what the articles and the thread said it would be like.”

“Was it life changing?”

“It’ll make winter fun. My whole body will be protected from getting the cold this year.” The sunshine man sends a small smile.

Both Scorpios in the room sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i kid you not, my coworker comes up to me and says he going to try the shower orange. the next day he shows me proof of him doing it and proceeds to show our other coworkers. okay i've worked it out to where i can post three to four times a week (as long they're short chapters (600 or less))  
> Thanks for reading this!


	14. Meeting Junhui

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junhui is finally here in the flesh!

Minghao stands in front of a brown door. He’s uncertain if he’s ready to face the force that is Junhui. Before he can knock, the door swings open. In front of him stands whom he supposes is Junhui. The blonde man grins widely at Minghao.

“ _Welcome_!” Minghao is surprised by the mandarin. “ _Come in, come in. I’m Junhui by the way. Wonwoo told me that you’re excited for this,_ ” Junhui grabs Minghao’s arm and pulls him inside.    

Minghao needs a word with Wonwoo Monday morning at work.

The inside is very comfy contrary to what one would assume with Wonwoo’s brooding appearances at work. There are plush sofas, piles of books everywhere, and several plants. Minghao thinks he spotted a music stand. On the sofa is Soonyoung. He’s playing with one of the cats.

“Ah Minghao! Hey!! How are you?” Soonyoung doesn’t look up.

“Good.”

“Hey Soonyoung, can you help Wonwoo with setting the table?” Junhui asks. Soonyoung is still preoccupied with the cat. “Soonyoung.”

Said man picks up the warning tone. He gets up and takes the cat with him. Junhui sighs. He sits on the sofa and motions for Minghao to sit too. Minghao takes a seat. “ _Do you like working at the company_?”

“ _I-It’s not bad._ ” He’s surprised at the direction of the topic. “ _I’m still getting used to the job though._ ”

“ _Yeah, Wonwoo mentioned you had gone on a trip right after starting._ ” Suddenly a scream is unleashed from the kitchen followed by a Wonwoo yelling Soonyoung’s name. The cat that was with Soonyoung runs out. Junhui continues without a glance to the kitchen, “ _Have you settled in to your place?_ ”

“ _Yes._ ” If he ignores several ~~major~~ minor problems, his place is fine.

“ _That’s a relief. Well let’s go grab food. Wonwoo is pumped about this. He said you really liked cold food, so there’s quite a bit of it_.” Junhui pushes himself up from the sofa. He extends a hand to help Minghao up.

Minghao might have to murder Wonwoo.

Minghao steps into a rustic kitchen set up. These are really nice aesthetics. The copper kitchen equipment matching with the golden oak wood counter tops. The table is covered in assortment of Chinese and American dishes. Lo and behold there’s tons of salads: potato salad, lettuce salad, fruit salad, and some other Chinese style salads. At least there’s not buckwheat noodle soup out, or else he would really be in trouble.

“Junhui, did you make all of these yourself?”  Minghao is shocked at the sheer amount of food on the table.

“Eh. Most. Maybe like 30 percent I bought from the store. I didn’t want to waste my time with potato salad.”

“That’s why Schuncks has great potato salad for sale,” Soonyoung says dumping a huge amount on his plate.

Soonyoung and Wonwoo have already helping themselves. When Wonwoo catches sight of Junhui, he scurries over with his plate of food.

“Junnie tell him what’s in the dessert for today.” Soonyoung is giddy with a chance to ruin something for Wonwoo. Junhui raises an eyebrow toward the speaker. He leans in and whispers to his husband while taking the plate from him. Minghao walks over to the table to grab sesame spinach.

Had Junhui not taken the plate from Wonwoo, there would’ve been a broken plate. “Ey. You’re messing with me too.” He swats playfully at his husband, “You wouldn’t serve jellyfish.”

Minghao looks up. “But there’s jellyfish salad right here,” pointing at the dish. He proceeds to put some on his plate.

Wonwoo shoots a glare at Soonyoung. “For dessert.” Soonyoung sends a smile.

The rest of the meal goes smoothly. The desserts actually being served were egg tarts and ginger milk jelly. To which Soonyoung points at the jelly and does a jellyfish dance. Wonwoo sighs. Junhui chuckles. Minghao smiles.

As to the rest of the evening: a fold up table was brought out for games. Going smoothly crashed after UNO came out. Minghao is surprised how heated everything got. While he knew, he himself was competitive, seeing the other 3 men get equally competitive was a twist. Especially the soft spoken, Junhui. He was ready to crush Wonwoo in this game. Then came bananagrams. Bananagrams was vicious with Wonwoo, the word master. To say he won is truly an inaccurate depiction of what actually happened. He demolished them without mercy, 7 rounds in a row. At one point, Soonyoung flipped the fold up table they were using and yelled “GAME OVER. ROUND 3 LET’S GO.” The evening ends once the quartet hear the clock chime at midnight. The dwellers of the home bid Minghao good night after an exchange of phone numbers.

Minghao is really glad to have been forced to meet Junhui like this. It’s been awhile since he’s had fun with others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay bananagrams is a better version of scrabble because there is no board to affect the points by the tiles  
> also apologies for the lack luster end of the chapter


	15. First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> minghao's first day at work, including first impressions of his team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooo , i finally wrote minghao's first day. sorry this chapter is going to be bland and boring compared to all the other ones

Minghao arrives in the parking garage at 7 am. He takes a deep breath.

Today is his first day on the job. Hopefully there won’t be too much safety and instructional stuff happening today. He enters the building. Crap. He forgot his coffee at the hotel room.

“Hello, I’m here for my first day.” He cringes internally at how fake it sounds.

The security person at the front desk nods, “Please sign in and go to that room behind you for a badge.”

Minghao looks at the glass room that is behind him. He tentatively walks towards it. The person behind the desk there looks occupied with the computer. Minghao clears his throat. “Umm. Hello?”

“Oh hello! Sorry man! I got preoccupied with youtube videos. What can I help you with?” The man sticks his hand out.

Minghao shakes it, “I need a badge…”

“Ah of course! Why else would you be here? Sorry it’s a bit early in the morning.” Oh god. The person is so chatty. It’s only 7 in the morning. Minghao is internally cursing the universe for allowing the events that led up to this moment. “Oh, I need you to fill out this paperwork for your car. Ah please stand against that blue backdrop.” Why, oh why did he forget his coffee this morning? He goes to stand against the backdrop trying to not appear high. The flash goes off. The whirring noise of the printer can be heard.

Ten minutes later a tall woman with dark brown hair steps into the badge office. “Good morning Minghao. Ready to get started?” A smile graces her lips.

“Good morning Jungah.”

The two swipe their badges. Minghao walks awkwardly behind the woman who is albeit shorter than him.  “So how long have you been in town now? Are you all moved in?”

Minghao laughs nervously. “Not quite. I just came in two days ago, I’m actually still looking for a place.” At this point he’s not sure how to pick a pace. His boss is waddling quite a bit, slowing her down. Luckily, they board the elevator.

“Oh, that sucks to hear. Maybe one of the others can help you out. Sorry about taking the elevator.” She pats her growing belly. “These two certainly take quite a bit out of me. Hopefully, Mingyu or Seokmin will be in to show you around.” The brunet nods. The elevator dings at floor 4. The two step out. “This part of the building is called building G. We’re in building H.”

Fuck. How many buildings are there on this campus?

 Jungah continues on, “Around 1 this afternoon, you need to travel to the main campus for safety training. Tomorrow will be your first full day.” They take a left. “This is where the cubicles are in our department. The other side, Morgan’s side, is where the rest of the team sits.”

How many sides are there on this team? Or is it department?

“Oh, good morning Jungah!” A bright cheery voice comes in from behind them. The voice matches the owner, a pure look of sunshine.  Behind the sunshine man, is a shorter brunet man. The shorter man grunts a hello.

“Seokmin, Jihoon, this is Minghao. He’s the newest addition to our team. Please be sure to help him out.”

“Certainly Jungah! Do you want me to show him around now?”

“If you don’t have much to do this morning, that would be great.”

“Follow me, Minghao.” Minghao follows the walking sun and Mr. raincloud to a cubicle at the very end of the hallway. “This is where we, lackeys sit. Your spot is right behind this pillar.”

Minghao looks around the shared cubicle. There’s a desk littered in dog photos and- is that a mini coffee station in here?!

“Oh, that mini coffee station is Mingyu’s.” What kind of pretentious ass has his own coffee station in a shared cubicle? There’s a rack of seven different syrups, equipped with cinnamon, honey, sugar, and nutmeg. Next to the rack are three coffee makers: a French press, regular old coffee brewer, and espresso machine. “He runs it every morning, once he arrives.”

These kinds of people actually exist.

Continuing towards the left from the coffee station, is a desk covered in stacks of papers. Popping out from behind the stacks are a few stuffed animals. Jihoon plops himself at the chair in that area.

Seokmin’s desk is covered in little figurines and papers. Action to video games to manga figurines.

Minghao’s portion of the cubicle is mostly bare, with a few safety posters left by the previous owner.

“Put your things down, and we can go walk around the area.” Seokmin hands Minghao a pair of safety glasses. “Safety first. Even if we’re not doing anything besides walking through the lab.”

The duo enters the lab. The first lab contains several workbenches with an incubator and freezer.  “This is where I mainly help out Jihoon. You’ll probably be helping Jihoon out here too.” They walk next door to another lab. There is a gigantic machine in the corner of one of the work benches. “This is the molecular lab. Jihoon and Wonwoo spend most of their time in here.” As if on cue a tall raven haired man walks through the back door to the lab. “Ah! Wonwoo, this is Minghao!” The embodiment of the sun waves over the tall man.

“Hi, I’m Wonwoo. Nice to meet you.” Wonwoo shakes Minghao’s hand. OH. His voice is surprisingly much deeper than expected. Which is to say, there were no expectations for a voice, but it’s still deeper than one would think. “Seokmin, is Jihoon getting coffee?” Seokmin nods. “Alright… guess I better start running Jihoon’s things.” The man walks away to a different workbench aisle and rummages through some drawers.

 Seokmin takes Minghao through three more labs, a hallway, and then the labs that are across the hallway. In the 5th lab that they go through, Minghao meets Jeonghan and Chad who are staring at the contents of a cooler. Jeonghan gives a very placid smile to Minghao, telling him if he ever has any troubles he wants to talk about to come to him.  

“Okay I don’t want to overwhelm you, but we have to head downstairs. I have to check on some plants.”

Fuck. How many more rooms does he need to memorize?

Seokmin takes him past some double doors to what he thinks is the hallway he was in earlier this morning. He’s looking at the sidewalk that’s under construction from the windows they walk by when he runs into someone. “Oh sor-!” The man in front of him is most definitely taller than Wonwoo.  Not only is he tall, he’s jaw dropping handsome. Minghao recollects himself to apologize. “Sorry.”

The man smiles, “No worries, I was probably not looking where I was going.”

Shit. There’s a really handsome dude that works here.

“Mingyu!” Wait. This is the man that has a mini coffee bar at the cubicle? “This is Minghao, today is his first day,” Seokmin continues talking with Mingyu.

Maybe he just heard wrong. This is probably Minshu. Yeah. Minshu. Minshu can’t possibly have a coffee bar in the office-.

“Hey I’m Mingyu.” Damn it. The bronze man has his hand out for a hand shake. Minghao looks at the hand and glances at his face. “Is there something on my face?”

“Yeah.” _Minghao NO. DO NOT._ He thinks to himself. “Yo-the sun.” He shakes Mingyu’s hand. _Wow. Nice save there._

Mingyu and Seokmin shoot each other a confused glance. “Well. Alright. It was good meeting you, Minghao.” Mingyu walks toward their department office.

The two board the elevator. “Mingh-oh.” Minghao bangs his head lightly against the elevator wall. He nearly just ruined a first meeting with a coworker with a your mom joke.

The two reach floor one. Seokmin smiles gently “Was it Mingyu’s beauty that threw you off? Don’t worry, Jihoon was so flabbergasted he kind of cussed Mingyu out.”

Oh. Well, if he’s not the only that’s been affected, that works. But that’s still kind of shitty. He promises himself to give Mingyu a better introduction later.

The rest of the morning is a blur. He is introduced to three more people in their department, shown the growth chambers, the green house, and the seed lab.

Minghao feels exhausted from all the people he’s met today. Maybe he’ll eat lunch at the cubicle. He’s about half way out of the office when he realized Seokmin never showed him the cafeteria. He goes back to the cubicle. Maybe there’s a building map there. Just as he was about to turn back, Jihoon is exiting the lab.

“Oh hey. Are you getting lunch now?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.” Minghao waits for Jihoon lead them to the cafeteria. Jihoon also stands there. The two stand there in the hallway 5 seconds longer than it should’ve taken for either to realize.

Flustered Jihoon responds, “Oh, I should’ve figured Seokmin forgot to show you how to get to the cafeteria. Ironic, that Mr. Food-is-love would forget that."

“S-sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Jihoon grabs his lunch box from the refrigerator near the entrance. The two take an immediate right down the stairs from the department door. Down three flights to the first floor that leads them to the cafeteria.

Jihoon explains the different areas of the cafeteria and stay with Minghao in the line. After Minghao pays, he follows Jihoon to a table with their boss, Jungah and another woman.

“Hey, Minghao! How’s Seokmin been doing showing you around? Jihoon, surprise seeing you join us.” Jungah looks up from her pasta to greet the two men joining the table.

“He forgot to show him how to get to the cafeteria.”  Jihoon deadpans. “I don’t want him to get overwhelmed by the idiots at the other table.”

Jungah and the other woman laugh. “Ah that would be a Seokmin thing to do.”

At the other table were the other contractor workers. Minghao could see Seokmin and Mingyu there along with a few others he met this morning. That table was loud. There was not a single quiet moment from that table. He could see why Jihoon could think he would get overwhelmed by them, but truthfully just trying to figure out where everything was overwhelming enough.

Lunch consisted of Jihoon and the other woman, Morgan talking to Jungah about her due date and the doctor appointments and food restrictions. Not the most interesting lunch break discussion but it was nice to be talking about other things besides introductory things.

After lunch ended, Jungah hands Minghao the address to the building he needs to drive to for orientation. “Call me if you get lost, okay? That campus is a bit of a maze. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Minghao nods and takes the address. Hopefully he doesn’t get lost trying to get back to his car first…


	16. Sassy Mornings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> super short chapter of Minghao straight up dissing mingyu as soon as he arrives for work

Another Tuesday morning.

Wonwoo enters the cubicle, “Hey have you guys seen Jihoon?”

“I think he’s in his lab.”

“Dude, your eye is red!” Mingyu exclaims.

“Thanks, I haven’t noticed.” Wonwoo deadpans.

“Why is it red?”

“Because it saw your face.” Minghao arrives at the scene.

Mingyu clutches his heart, miffed. “The first thing in the morning you do when you arrive is insult me?”

“No, the first thing I did was stare a hole through Wonwoo so I didn’t have to stand here to have this conversation with you.” Minghao maneuvers between Wonwoo and the column to get to his desk.

Seokmin pats Mingyu’s shoulder in pity.

“Since I don’t know what could be causing it, and I left my glasses at home, I might be leaving early if it keeps bothering me,” Wonwoo continues as if the previous exchange never happened. “Keep up the good work guys.” He heads back to the molecular lab.

“Did you hear that Minghao? ‘Good work.’ Meaning you should get to work.”

“Okay, let me work on getting me home.”

“Minghao, did someone spike your coffee? You’re as bitter as black coffee.” Seokmin observes.

“You just got here. What do you mean going home?”

“Going home means going home, loser.” Minghao gives him the middle finger.

“Seokmin!”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Stop him from dissing me,” Mingyu pouts.

“Not my fault you’re dissable.” He grabs his headphones and dabs leaving the cubicle. “Later, loser. See you around, Seokmin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i' ll be going back to Minghao's first week of work later this week. I wanted to make up for the chapter from 2 days ago...


	17. First Team Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> minghao experiences his first team meeting

Good morning. How was the safety training?” Seokmin asks. Mingyu is making coffee with the French press.

“I fell asleep,” Minghao replies.

“You WHAT.” Mingyu nearly drops his coffee cup.

“I. Fell. Asleep. It’s fine, it’s not like there was a quiz at the end.” Minghao dismisses Mingyu’s concerns.

Falling asleep was not the only thing that happened yesterday. Minghao got lost trying to leave the building. He tried to leave through the first floor, there is no exit on the first floor. The main lobby is on the second floor. Then he missed one of the entrances from the highway to other campus. He had to drive around for twenty minutes trying to figure a different way in. Then inside the building, he got lost during a break trying to find the restroom. Him and another person walked around the entire cafeteria, that was next to the room the orientation was held, before finding it in some hallway.

“What are we doing today, Seokmin?”

“Weellll there’s a meeting we have at 8 first, so we’ll just chill up here until the meeting starts.”

“There’s a meeting every Tuesday morning but it’s never in the same room,” Jihoon comments sipping his coffee.

“Prepare yourself, Jungah is going to make you introduce yourself to the entire team.” Mingyu warns Minghao. “It happened to me during my first team meeting.”

Minghao sips his canned coffee.

“That’s not the only thing that happened.” Seokmin has a mischievous glint in his usually pure sunshine grin.

“Seokmin, don’t,” Mingyu pleads.

“Mingyu missed the chair, fell, spilled coffee on himself, knocked down the white board, and managed to get Jihoon covered in coffee too.”

Minghao cracks a smile at the blunders. So, the handsome man is a goof. Well that makes it easier. He’s not a perfect human being despite what his looks give off.

Mingyu is blushing furiously. “Seokmin, now I look like a doofus in front of the newbie!”

“But you are a doofus. He was gonna figure it out soon, doofus.” Jihoon says. “Also, now that Seokmin reminded me, go deal with Jeonghan for me after the meeting, as payback for covering me in coffee.”

Mingyu’s eyes widen. “Jihoon, please. Not today. I have things to do today.”

“It’s fine. That’s why Minghao joined the team. We need more hands for our upcoming stuff.” Jihoon glances at his computer screen. “Time for the meeting.” He promptly gets up and leaves. The other three file behind him to the meeting room.

At the meeting room, Wonwoo is there with four other adults. Jihoon takes a seat next to him. Mingyu and Seokmin take a seat at the far end of the table. Minghao sits across from Wonwoo. Jungah wobbles in.

“Hey everyone, as you see we have our new team member starting this week. Everyone say hello to Minghao.” The entire room greets him. “Minghao say a few things about yourself to the others.”

Minghao blinks. Oh boy. Self-introductions are not his thing.  He tries racking up a few things he could say. The room feels like it’s beginning to close in on him. With a shaky voice, “I’m Minghao Xu. I graduated a year ago with a degree in biological engineering. Um.” What else do people in introductions? He hasn’t had to do one in a year. “I’m 23 years old. Is there any-”

“Oh! If anyone has any suggestion for places let Minghao know. He’s still looking,” Jungah announces. Minghao wants to sink beneath the table and never come out.

“Where are you looking to move?” an elderly man with glasses, named Carson asks.

“Anywhere within a thirty-minute radius.”

“Well there’s Fronting Crossing that’s close by. I lived there when I first moved, but I’m uncertain about the price for it now.” Carson suggests.

“Thanks. I’ll look into it.”

“Okay, let’s move on to business,” Jungah announces. She and the other full time workers discuss details of projects and make sure the others know what their main tasks are for this week. Minghao’s body relaxes a bit now that the attention is off him. Wonwoo and Jihoon bring up some questions about something. Seokmin and Mingyu remain quiet.

The meeting ends after a discussion on buying a new centrifuge for Wonwoo. Everyone files out of the room and to their separate tasks.

Seokmin grabs Minghao’s shoulder on the way out, “C’mon let’s go check out the growth chambers. I need to show you how watering works.”

Mingyu grabs Seokmin’s hand, “Seokmin, come with me please to deal with Jeonghan. Besides you caused this to happen. Aaannd he’s nice to you.”

Seokmin shakes his hand out of Mingyu’s grip, “No way. He’ll ask me to hang out at his place this weekend. Then he’ll keep asking for my food when we go out.”

“I don’t wanna deal with him myself.”

“Too bad. You reap what you sow.” Seokmin turns back to Minghao, who’s flabbergasted at this exchange. Jeonghan seemed like a nice dude when he met him yesterday. Guess there’s a hidden side to everyone. It’s certainly proving true with Adonis here. “Okay, Minghao let’s go!” The two head toward the elevators, ditching Mingyu to sulk back to the cubicle. Seokmin glances at Minghao, “Don’t worry about Mingyu. Jeonghan just loves to toy with people he’s fond with.”

“Oh.” Hopefully he won’t have to work with Jeonghan much, so he can avoid the hassle that is Jeonghan.  ( ~~He can't.~~ )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> now that most of the main team has been introduced through the painful introductory of starting a new job: (general job roles)  
> Minghao: field biologist/microbiologist  
> Mingyu: soil specialist  
> Seokmin: microbiologist  
> Jihoon: microbiologist, RNA and DNA specialist  
> Wonwoo: RNA and DNA specialist


	18. Walking Cats 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soonyoung and Junhui take the cats on a walk

Soonyoung bursts into the greenhouse. “Minghao! Save me!” He hides behind Minghao, who’s watering the petunias.

“What?” Minghao turns with the hose. Spraying Wonwoo who entered the doorway. “Shit. Sorry man.” He takes off his headphones.

“Serves you right!” Soonyoung yells behind Minghao.

“Soonyoung Kwon!” Soonyoung dashes down the bench row. Wonwoo chases.

“Please don’t harm the petunias! Tina will be after me if they’re harmed.” Minghao calls out and goes back to watering.

“Soonyoung, you knew full well I have carriers for the cats!”

“But Junnie didn’t stop me!”

“Junnie was recovering from the anesthesia!”

Oh boy. Weekend drama at the cat house. Better keep Mingyu and Seokmin posted. Minghao keeps his thumbs ready.

“But he thought the cats needed a walk!”

“Why didn’t you walk them around the house?!”

“I thought they needed a change of scene!”

“THAT DOESN’T MEAN THROWING THEM IN A LAUNDRY HAMPER IN THE BACKSEAT AND TAKING THEM TO THE PARK!”

Minghao steps in, “Wait. Is there a video? I want to see this before Wonwoo ends you.”

“The audacity,” Soonyoung replies in mock horror. “But yeah.” He starts pulling out his phone.

Wonwoo sighs, “Soonyoung you better find your own ride home tonight. I’m going to go see if Seokmin or Mingyu have a spare shirt I could use for the day.” He wrings his shirt before leaving.

Minghao hits the play button.  Soonyoung’s video starts with Junhui sitting in the back watching the cats.

“Soonyoungie how fast are you going?” Junhui is watching one cat jump from the head rest into the laundry basket. The other is camped right next to Junhui, buckled up. “Shakespurr doesn’t like this at all.”

“The speed limit.” They hit a speed bump. A cat hits the roof of the car. “Whoops.”

“SHAKESPURR.” Junhui looks straight at Soonyoung, “WONWOO IS GONNA KILL US IF SHAKESPURR GETS INJURED.”

The clip ends. Minghao is holding his sides laughing. “I- I can’t believe. You and Junhui took the cats to the park in a laundry hamper.” He somehow manages out between his wheezing.

Soonyoung wiggles his eyebrows, “I have a better video, if you want to see.”

“Of course!” Soonyoung takes the phone, to swipe to the next video.

The video shows Junhui crouching next to the army crawling cat. “Junnie… I don’t have a leash for you either.”

“You’re being silly. I don’t need a leash. I’m trying to communicate to Choppurr through my eyes.” Junhui looks up at the phone, pointing. “Hey are you recording this? There’s nothing here to record.”

“Just say hi to Wonwoo, Junnie.” The video ends.

Honestly Minghao didn’t think he could be laughing any harder than he already was.  Yet the sight of Junhui crouching next to the cat has him in tears. “H-has Wonwoo seen this video?”

The other man sighs, “No. Wonwoo hasn’t seen any of the videos. But our dear Junnie spilled the beans to Wonwoo because he thought he dreamed it all up. And Wonwoo being our smart detective figured out it actually happened.” Soonyoung pockets his phone. “Well, I better go see if Jeonghan can take me home today. See ya at lunch!”


	19. Chili Garlic Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soonyoung brings something he cooks for lunch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhhhh sorry for the short chapter ;___;  
> this week will have one more short chapter as im traveling this weekend

“Soonyoung what is that?” Jeonghan plugs his nose at the smell coming out of Soonyoung’s tupperware.

“All I can smell is chili…and garlic?” Mingyu sniffs the air.

Minghao nearly gags at the sight of Soonyoung’s meal. If it could even be called a meal.

If Wonwoo has the basic broke college student meals, then Soonyoung has the mashed-up casserole of your worst elementary school lunch mystery meat nightmares.

“Junhui let you cook in their kitchen?” Jihoon asks astounded. “Junhui Wen. Actually, let you put your hands on their stove.” He turns to Wonwoo. “Was Junhui sick?”

“Whoa, slow down on the negativ- HOLY SHIT SOONYOUNG. WHO LET YOU COOK?” Seokmin arrives nearly dropping his cheeseburger.

“Excuse me. I can too cook.” A cherry tomato hits his head. “Okay, I can microwave things.”

“Soonyoung you still haven’t answered me as to what that monstrosity of your lunch is.” Jeonghan bites into his tacos.

Soonyoung beams with pride picking up his dish, “My chili garlic surprise!”

A round of ‘put that down’ comes from the whole table.

“Yes. We get that, Soonyoung.”

“Soonyoung. Ingredients.” Jihoon spits out.

“Let’s see…” Soonyoung digs around his lunch, “I spy carrots, rice, chicken, peas… oh is that…?” Mingyu facepalms. “Oh yess, celery. What else?”

If Minghao thought waiting for the high school teacher to dismiss you after the bell rang was agony, this was on par with that.

“Junhui is still recovering from his surgery.” Wonwoo replies, taking a break from his chicken noodle soup, “So Soonyoung and I are left to our own devices for food… to which Soonyoung decided to use whatever what was in the fridge.”

Jeonghan could not look any more mortified than he currently was, “Soonyoung were you attempting to be healthy or not? But more importantly is Junhui okay? Should I come over with food for him?”

“And none for us?”

Minghao cuts in, “Soonyoung please just eat your monstrosity. It smells horrible.” The brunet has buried his nose into his jacket sleeve.

“It only smells horrible. It tastes great. With enough chili and garlic anything taste better.” Soonyoung states matter-of-factly. “Plus it clears out your sinuses real well.”

Mingyu groans, “Soonyoung… let me teach you how to cook, please.”

For once a different expression crosses Wonwoo’s normally resting bitch face. “Mingyu. Please.”

Because Soonyoung gets distracted too easily, he is eventually (5 minutes later) kicked out of the table to eat somewhere else so everyone else could eat their lunch in peace. Sadly, everyone at the table smelled of chili and garlic. To which Soonyoung yelled karma, and got a pencil thrown at him.


	20. You Know The Name of The Park Everyone Knows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon and Wonwoo make plans for a camping trip in front of Minghao.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay we're actually getting more of a linear plot line now. thanks for bearing with me! (haha get it? cause you run into bears when camping sometimes. okay i'll leave)

It’s a slow afternoon. Minghao is cutting parafilm to avoid helping Mingyu downstairs in the soil lab.

Wonwoo enters the cubicle. “Jihoon, what are you bringing?”

Jihoon looks up from his computer, “Liquor wise? Or actual supplies wise?”

“Both. Because Soonyoung has all of the shitty liquor prepared. I think he’s only bringing a hammock as his only sleeping thing.”

“What about Seokmin?”

“He’s bringing hot dogs and stuff for s’mores.”

“Are you guys going camping this weekend?” Minghao interrupts.

The two turn toward him. “Yeah. It’s going to be an interesting trip.”

“It’s going to be 100 degrees.” Minghao deadpans.

“Sadly, we can’t cancel. We’ve been planning this trip since January.” Jihoon sighs thinking about the heat.

Wonwoo nods in sad agreement, “This is the only free weekend for about most people in the group. Jeonghan would’ve come but he wanted to watch Junhui and the cats instead.” He looks slightly perplexed. “Actually, I’m not sure why I agreed to that. Those two will be causing their own kind of chaos while Soonyoung and I are out of the house.”

Minghao just nods. Honestly Jeonghan is a puzzle to him, even after being here for three months.

“Who’s bringing the tent?” Jihoon’s question snaps Minghao out of his curiosity.

“Shit. I’ll see if we can borrow one from Mingyu. I forgot Soonyoung’s got burned up in that fire.” Wonwoo’s hand massages his own neck. “Ugh he’s going to get pouty that he wasn’t invited for this. Jihoon, we really should’ve invited him.”

“Listen it’s either him or Soonyoung. I’m not risking having two fire hazards around at a park we don’t normally camp out at.”

“What park are you going to?”

“Little Grand Canyon Park. It’s about a two-hour drive east of here.”

“What park do you normally camp at?”

“Washington State Park. We decided to go to a place closer to here… but that was when Junhui was with us.”

“So, you guys go camping pretty often then?”

“Eh. Mingyu actually goes camping the most often out of all of us. Jihoon, Soonyoung, Junhui, and I go on a camping trip once a year. It’s a tradition that the four of us have kept for four years.”

“Okay it sounds cute and shit but I joined two years ago,” Jihoon says, cutting off any sentimental comments Minghao would’ve said. “And camping with those losers is a headache.”

“But Seokmin is joining?”

“He’s there for moral support at this rate.”

“A ray of sunshine for Jihoonie.” Wonwoo coos. Jihoon glares at the man.

“What makes him different from Soonyoung?”

“Don’t. You. Dare. Insist. Those. Two. Remotely. The. Same.” The glare turns murderous toward the brunet.

Minghao tries to back track under the murderous gaze, “Ummm have you ever been to that one national park?”

“Which national park?” Jihoon asks dryly.

“You know. The one famous one.” Wonwoo and Jihoon stare at Minghao blankly. “It’s in Idaho?”

“There’s a famous national park in Idaho?” Wonwoo asks.

“You say everyone knows this, but even you don’t know it.”

“Shut uuup.” A slight whine enters Minghao’s voice.

“Woooow.”

“Ah. I mean it’s the park with that geyser-.“

Wonwoo interjects, “YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK?” Minghao nods. Wonwoo unlocks his phone to look up something.

“Oh my god.” Jihoon facepalms to hide the oncoming laughter.

Internally, Minghao swears up and down that Idaho does indeed have a portion of Yellowstone National Park before this entire conversation happened. (Fact: just a small corner is indeed in Idaho. God bless Wonwoo for checking.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fact: i was minghao with the whole yellowstone national park because i couldn't remember the word geyser for the life of me....  
> yes i did in fact get my facts handed to me. most of the park is in wyoming  
> have a good weekend!


	21. Camping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the guys try to retell what happened on the camping trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys sorry for disappearing... i got exhausted between pulling overtime and fixing my sleep. next week i'll be back on schedule!

“How did the camping trip go?” Mingyu asks as he sits down.

“We made boy scouting look like a walk in the park.” Soonyoung brings up.

Jihoon mumbles, “That’s because you were drunk for the entire evening.”

Wonwoo takes a bite of microwavable dinner lasagna, “Honestly it’s a miracle you’re alive.”

“What happened?” Mingyu asks.

“Yeah…what happened? I only remember waking up in the tent in a gigantic ass puddle.” Minghao nearly chokes on his burger.

“Only because, god bless Seokmin for trying to drag you in the rain inside the tent.” Jihoon makes prayer hands.

“Where is my sunshine man?” Jeonghan asks.

“Out recovering,” Jihoon replies.

“Soonyoung, how drunk did you get?” Mingyu looks skeptically at the trio.

“I mean I only remember the hike to the spot. Crazy eyes. Then waking up in a puddle.”

“So, nothing.” Jihoon sighs.

“What do you even mean by Crazy Eyes?” Mingyu inquires.

“There was some man we came across like two hours into the hike. All he had was this bottle of Gatorade and that was it.”

“Honestly he could’ve murdered someone. His eyes were really unfocused.” Soonyoung’s eyes light up. “Maybe he was smoking some dank weed?”

“Get. Out.”

“WHAAAT.”

“What year is it. I want you to reflect on what word you just used.” A fork is pointed at Soonyoung.

“Continue on with what happened.” Jeonghan waves on to Wonwoo.

“So, you know how it rained in the city? It was definitely not just a simple rainstorm for us at the campsite. It was a fucking mini hurricane out there.”

“A tree branch nearly ended Soonyoung.” Jihoon says it as if it’s a common occurrence.

“WHAT?!” Three voices ring out. Jeonghan’s jaw drops.

Mingyu and Minghao whip their heads toward Soonyoung, “What do you mean what?! You were there!”

“Hey. I was drunk.” Soonyoung put his hands up in defense.

“There was so much rain and wind that it knocked down several branches around our campsite. One, half the size of Jihoon, fell like a foot away from the tent.”

“Hmm… yeah definitely don’t remember that.” Soonyoung takes a bite of his lettuce head.

“When did you guys start drinking?” Minghao is certain he doesn’t want to know unlike Mingyu.

“Maybe around 2? Hard to say since all of our phones weren’t connected to a network.”

Jeonghan sighs. “I thought I taught you children better,” He chides.

“Hey everyone else was fine. But that dick-.” Jihoon points at Soonyoung who’s two seats over, “Drank an entire bottle of Jack the entire way to the site. Then he drank four beers and half a bottle of tequila.” And he was right.

“Jeezus. How much of an alcoholic are you?”

“You. Have. No. Idea.” “Don’t remind us.” Jihoon and Wonwoo reply simultaneously.

“Well on a good day I can drink 5 bottles of soju.”

“That is not a good day for anyone dealing with you.”

“Jihoon, why do you keep picking on meeeee?” Soonyoung whines and leans over to Wonwoo, who shrugs him off. “Jeonghan, I wanna be comforted.” He reaches over Jihoon to Jeonghan. Jihoon smacks the wandering hand.

“I want to know the whole story before I comfort you. I only heard Wonwoo’s side when the two of you came back.”

Mingyu and Minghao exchange looks with each other. The story telling is going nowhere. Absolutely nowhere but in circles of bickering. Seokmin isn’t here to help delegate between everyone.

Mingyu whispers, “Hey want to go eat outside instead?”

Minghao looks at the rest of the table. Jihoon keeps smacking Soonyoung. Jeonghan keeps encouraging the chaos between Jihoon and Soonyoung. Wonwoo is shoveling his lasagna.

“Sure.”

The two gather their things and leave to the patio area.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the real question is when will we get the full story of the camping trip from them?   
> also i wonder what happened for the rest of the lunch break on the patio? hmmm will i ever get there


	22. Patio Lunch 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lunch continues

Minghao stretches underneath the for once gentle summer sun. There’s still half an hour left to their lunch break.  Mingyu is sitting underneath the table umbrella on his phone.

Honestly, coming outside was a good choice. The sun wasn’t too harsh. It was a nice 80 degrees rather than the hot humid 90 degrees July day. But being here with Mingyu was not. After the jokes about Soonyoung’s odd raw produce eating habits, there was only small talk left. At this point, Mingyu knows not to engage Minghao in small talk. The last time that had happened… had nearly not ended well for Mingyu. The two ate their food in silence.

“Hey Minghao-,“ Mingyu hesitates seeing the glare. He swallows before continuing, “Can you help me out in the soil lab after lunch?”

“How about no?”  The other man pouts. Minghao pouts in return.

“What are you even doing this afternoon? I checked with the others, and you have nothing. That means I can borrow you for the afternoon.”

Who is Mingyu to check with everyone else but him on his availability this afternoon? It doesn’t matter that he’s right. Minghao crosses his arms, “But you didn’t even check with me.”

The raven-haired man groans at his blunder. “I’m checking with you now.”

“Fine. I guess,” Minghao curtly responds. Only because the guilt of not helping someone out would eat him, even if the person needing help is Mingyu.

Minghao grabs his to go container.

“Wait where are you going? We still have 20 minutes left for lunch.”

“I gotta take in all the fresh air I can before being stuck in a dungeon room with you.” Minghao smiles calmly before walking off.

This was going to be a long afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slowly coming back. so much happened this past week.... ive learned im not made to be making continuous outings. hopefully this week i can update back to my normal schedule


	23. Those Are My Pants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jihoon's college baseball pants are discovered

“You guys won’t believe what I discovered this morning.” Jihoon announces upon Minghao’s arrival to the lunch table. 

“Is this another food rant Jihoon?” Jeonghan smiles, chin resting on his hand.

“No. but if people actually had common sense, then I wouldn’t have to rant about them.” Jihoon rolls his eyes, “Anyways I discovered this on Ebay.” He slides his phone over to Jeonghan.

Jeonghan and Mingyu both stare at the screen confused. “Jihoon, these are baseball pants.” The phone is handed to Wonwoo.

“That’s the thing. Those are my pants from when I was on the team.” Mingyu and Minghao look up from their food.

“Team?”“WAIT DID YOU PLAY PROFESSIONALLY?” “Why are your pants on Ebay? How do you know these are your pants?” Hands slam the table.  Wonwoo and Jeonghan grab their tipping cups.

Jihoon takes a bite of his chicken sandwich, “One at a time you dolts. Yeah, I used to play for Ohio State University’s-,“

“The Ohio State University.”

Jihoon nearly slams down his sandwich. “Alright punk, fucking interrupt me again about my alumni’s proper name and prepare to get your microscope up your ass.” Soonyoung raises his hands.

“Hey, it’s your alumni’s name. I didn’t make the rules about that.” Wonwoo hits Soonyoung’s head.

“Yeah. Apparently, someone thought I was good enough to sell them. Anyways I played for OSU’s baseball team for a bit. I know these are my pants because of the number on the tag. The number is my jersey number.

 “Well the caption for the picture does say Jihoon Lee’s pants.” Wonwoo points out while handing the phone to Minghao.

“Pretty sure the managers would know it’s Jihoon’s pants because of the size. They wouldn’t need his jersey number.” Mingyu whispers to Minghao. The latter tries to hold down his snickers. The two shut up at Jihoon’s glare.

“Maybe when you go back into baseball we can resell your pants. And talk about how we were once coworkers with the Jihoon Lee.” Soonyoung dabs at his fake tears.

“Are your other teammates’ being sold too?” Mingyu asks after a bite of his Shepard’s pie.

“You’re only 80 dollars worth. But your teammate, umm, Minhyuk Park, is 130 dollars.” Mingyu peers from Minghao’s shoulder. Minghao swats at him.

“It’s fine. I have no plans to enter the big leagues.” Jihoon tears at his chicken sandwich. “Teaching brats how to do baseball is good enough for me.”

“Suuure.” Jeonghan smirks at the former baseball player.

“It’s okay Jihoon. You’re still number one to me.” Seokmin grins at the shorter man, giving him thumbs up.

Jihoon chokes on his sandwich. Wonwoo and Soonyoung burst out laughing. Minghao hands Jihoon water.

“Jihoon! Are you okay?!” Seokmin rushes over to Jihoon’s side.

“Don’t we all just love a mean banana pie?”

“Jeonghan get out of here with your weird cooking show references!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that was not a cooking show reference and i have failed you all  
> also i will crack jokes at my uni's full name


	24. Sibling Fights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> one of the reasons why mingyu isn't allowed to small talk with minghao

Mingyu, Seokmin, and Minghao are all working down in the seed lab with Soonyoung’s EDM blaring through the radio speakers.

“So Hao, were there any good liquor stores back from where you’re from?” Mingyu momentarily pauses from counting seeds.

‘Of all topics to talk about why is it this one?’ Minghao wonders. “I didn’t really drink that much on my own. I only drank to the few parties I went to.”

“Yeah, but surely there are liquor stores.”

“Well there was one five blocks down that my housemates and I would frequent.”

“Did you know we have an Anheuser-Busch here?”

“Okay. We had one back in Colorado too.”

“But it’s the production factory here.”

Minghao can feel a slight incoming headache, “We had one of those too. I went on a tour of it for a job shadow.”

“Yeah but it’s the Anheiser-Busch.”

“Oh my fucking god.” Minghao nearly throws down the pepper seeds, “Are you a big beer conssieur or-“

Before Minghao’s patience burst, the double doors swing open. Jeonghan strolls in.

“What’s up Jeonghan?” Seokmin’s body relaxes at the interruption. Mingyu sighs.

“What’s up guys?” Jeonghan placidly smiles back at the sunshine man.

“He wants to fight.” Minghao responds.

“What?! No I don’t.” Seokmin swivels his head at Minghao. “In the 25 years I’ve lived, I never got into a fight. And I’m not about to start now.”

“There’s a first time for everything, right? It’s okay. My father always said everyone needs a good ass-whooping once in their life.” Soonyoung joins in.

“What you never got into a fight with your sibling?”

“Well of course but those don’t count. I was talking about street fights.”

“What kind of pure life are you living… that you consider street fights serious fights?” Mingyu stares at Seokmin.

“What kind of fights are you having with your siblings?”

Minghao is always secretly relieved he never had a sibling to fight with. Only God knows how much more trouble he would’ve gotten in.

“The kinds that involve fists and feet.” Jeonghan and Soonyoung nod to Mingyu’s statement. Seokmin’s jaw drops.

“Maybe a few brass knuckles.” Everyone in the room turns to the speaker.

“Soonyoung what the fuck.” Jeonghan says what everyone’s thinking.

“What. It’s called sibling bonding time.” Soonyoung shrugs.

“In what world? Did you grow up with brawlers or something?”

“Yeah! My dad and sister are pro boxers.” He bulks up. “See these shoulders and arms? Got that from boxing with them.”

It would be quite impressive except for the fact, Soonyoung is a bit of a noodle in the arms department.

“Oh my god.” Seokmin and Mingyu whisper simultaneously. Minghao just sits there dumbfounded. His third week here, and these are the people he works with. At least he leaves for Spain soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello i'm alive! i havent forgotten about this. i won't be traveling for awhile so more time to write!


	25. June Cake Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their workplace celebrates everyone's bday with a semi big celebration of once a month cake day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place between Alpaca Steak 2 and Just Meet Him Please

Soonyoung bursts open the door to Jihoon’s lab. “GUYS GUESS WHAT TODAY IS.”

Jihoon sighs and puts down his pipette. “It’s too early to be this excited, Soonyoung.”  It’s ten in the morning.

“TODAY IS THE BEST MONTH OF THE YEAR!” Soonyoung swoops in next to Jihoon, his fingers wiggling. “There’s ice cream instead of cake this month!”

“Why do we get ice cream?” Minghao asks.

“Every third Thursday of the month, the company celebrates everyone’s birthday with cake. It’s ice cream this month because –“

“June is the best month.” Soonyoung sticks his chest out.

“-It’s summer.” Jihoon smacks Soonyoung’s chest causing the latter to cough.

“Cake?”

“Oh, that’s right you started at the end of April and missed it last month because you were coming back from Spain.” Seokmin comments. “This time you can join in on the fun!”

“It’s really a social networking event under the guise of a free food party.” Jihoon goes to replace his rubber gloves.

“I’m not big on ice cream….” He shudders thinking about the cold touch of ice cream.

“Don’t worry. You can still come down to hang out with us.” He slings an arm around Minghao’s shoulders. “There’s a fooze ball table down there.”

Guess it wouldn’t hurt to take this opportunity to know the others a bit better. His last work place left him feeling lonely most days.

“Sure, why not.”

“Cool! The event starts at two! I’ll swing by to grab you guys.”

“Don’t. We’ll just meet you there Soonyoung.” Jihoon glares at the happy man. “Seokmin, don’t conspire with him at lunch to do anything embarrassing during the event.”

“No promises Jihoon!” Seokmin chirps. Jihoon turns his glare on him. “I-I mean of course Jihoon!”

Soonyoung winks at Seokmin as he leaves the lab.

 

“So this is a monthly thing that happens?” Minghao and Seokmin are the first two to arrive to the table.

“Yup! The fun committee plans these things out.”

“You’re shitting me,” Minghao deadpans. “There’s a committee called the fun committee here?”

“Yeah. Jihoon is a part of it!”

“WHAT?!” Mingyu hollers. “The little ball of sarcasm is on the fun committee? How did he get on there?”

“Mingyu, this is the cafeteria. There’s no need to yell.”

Seokmin continues on, “Jihoon is actually pretty good with stuff like this. He listens to everyone’s input and makes sure it goes under serious consideration.”

“Huh. Interesting.”

Minghao takes a bite of his pasta. “So does the fun committee only plan for birthday parties?”

“There are other fun events, like the company barbeque picnic, lip-sync competition, and bingo night. Soonyoung once tried to pitch the idea of company square dancing but Jihoon shot him down.”

“Who shot who down?” Wonwoo and Jeonghan come up to the table with their lunch boxes.

“Remember when Soonyoung tried to get Jihoon on board with the square dancing?”

Jeonghan chuckles, “Only because Soonyoung would try to start a dance competition on the floor.” He pauses before pulling out his container of leftovers. “Actually, I think Soonyoung tried to start a dance competition within our department about five months after he started.” Wonwoo nods in agreement after a bite of his microwavable dinner mashed potatoes.

Mingyu and Minghao spit out their food.

“Whoa there guys. Only one germ guy at a time please.” Soonyoung quips, placing his nachos far away from the duo.

“Don’t compare me to him!”/“Guys, it was one time.” The two complain.

“One time?!” Minghao turns to Mingyu at the blasphemous statement. “You. Sneezed. All. Over. The. Soil. Samples.” Seokmin groans. Wonwoo snorts. Jeonghan and Soonyoung continue eating their lunch ignoring the brewing argument.

 

“Go time!” Seokmin announces.

Minghao looks at the clock. He looks back at the samples he still needs to plate. It’s been 2 hours since lunch. There’s still 30 left. Yeah, a break sounds good. “Coming!”

Minghao tidies up his area, and leaves the hood door open an inch from completely closing. He puts his safety glasses on the counter. Wonwoo, Soonyoung, and Seokmin are in the hallway waiting. He follows them to an office that’s on the third floor of building I. Inside the office, is almost a completely different world. There are half cubicles, a few meeting rooms, colorful sofas, a fooze ball table, basketball hoop, and ping pong table.

“Dude. What department is this?”

“Marketing.”

Of course. The marketing and public relations department at his old job had all the fun stuff too.

The quartet enter the office’s break room. Immediately Minghao is floored by the sink and dishwasher (Okay possibly the three microwaves too. Mingyu’s coffee stand beats the coffee maker here). This breakroom is so nice, compared to their office’s drink station.  

“Hao! C’mon grab your ice cream.” Soonyoung calls Minghao out of his observation.

“I’m good.” On one of the cabinets is the list of workers’ birthdays for this month. Upon closer inspection, he recognizes a name at the top half of the page. “Soonyoung! Why didn’t you tell me your birthday passed?”

“Hmm? Oh that’s because it was a joint bday party with me and Junnie.” He replies after dumping a bunch of crushed oreos on his ice cream.

“Ah, that’s Wonwoo’s husband right?”

“Yeah! You guys should meet.” Minghao watches the sweet confection turn into a sugar rush nightmare for any parents. M&Ms are tossed on.

“Why do you call him Junnie rather than Junhui?” Minghao wants to gag seeing the amount of chocolate syrup that has welled along the sides of the ice cream.

“Just a cute nickname we made for him in college.” Soonyoung throws on a few cherries and a whole layer of whip cream. “C’mon let’s talk with the others!” Minghao lets himself get dragged along.

To his utter shock, the sugar rush concoction is handed to Wonwoo, who takes a giant spoonfuls until its gone. Wonwoo hands Soonyoung a simple mint chocolate ice cream double scooped with whip cream and a cherry.


	26. Puppies and Noodles 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a small drabble chapter

“Anything planned for this weekend?” Jihoon prompts.

“I’m volunteering at the puppy shelter this-“

“Puppy shelter?!”

“Can I join?” “Lemme come too!”

Seokmin raises his hands, “This weekend is probably too close for a notice.” The pair of shoulders drop. “But I’m pretty certain they won’t mind the extra help.” Mingyu and Minghao look up and at each other, then Seokmin, smiling. “You guys really didn’t have anything else planned this weekend?”

Mingyu’s canines can be seen from his bright smile, “I only have the farmer’s market planned for early Saturday morning. Then making some ramen.”

“Isn’t it too hot to be making ramen broth?” Jihoon questions.

“I’m just really in the mood for ramen.”

“Are you making the broth or the noodles?” Seokmin asks while gathering his things for the lab.

“Just broth this time.”

“Weak sauce.” A slightly bored voice slides out.

“Excuse me?”

“No. Not in the cubicle.” Jihoon gets up, “Not this morning.” He grabs the back of Minghao’s chair. “I never asked what you guys have planned for your weekends.” Minghao’s chair gets caught on Mingyu’s. The two are being pushed out of the cubicle. Seokmin is leaning on his desk laughing at the sight. For a small man, there’s a lot of strength hidden in there.


	27. Puppies and Noodles 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao loves dogs. The dog shelter is fantastic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahahaha omg im back after like 3 months.....   
> sorry... i got serious road block with this series

BEST DAMN IMPULSIVE DECISION OF THE MONTH, Minghao decides once he’s surrounding by a bunch of dogs. He’s also relieved because the shelter didn’t mind him or Mingyu as last minute extra help. He picks up a beagle. It licks his nose. He giggles.

Mingyu is busy playing tug of war with two dogs. Seokmin is out walking dogs with one of the shelter workers.

Honestly, if his apartment place wasn’t so shitty he would totally adopt one of these guys. Although if he considers his bank account, this is currently for the best.

He coos at the dog in his hands. “Aren’t you a good dog, Scarlet?” He puts down the dog. He looks around the room.

“Oh, hey Minghao!” A sweaty Seokmin and the worker are back. “Do you want to walk the other half of the dogs with Hansol? It’s hot out and I’m dying from it.”

“Sure!” He gathers himself up to go help the other two. Seokmin releases the dogs from their leashes.

 

“Oh, be careful of Mr. Snuffs. He’ll get his drool all over ya if you’re not careful.” The worker hands over some leashes. Minghao notices a very happy black Labrador with drool leaking out. “Oh, I’m Hansol by the way. Seokmin said you were Minghao?”

The big grin matches the worker’s easy-going attitude.  “Yeah. Nice to meet you.”

“Hope you’re ready for a work out. The second batch loves to run.” He hands Minghao five more leashes.

“I don’t mind exercise.”

“Hold on tight.” Hansol opens the door. Minghao swears his grin is on par with Seokmin and the sun.

 

The dogs run free after the duo enter the building. They all dash towards the bowls of water Seokmin and Mingyu have prepared. Minghao collapses on the ground. Air conditioning is such a blessing. Hansol lies down next to him.

“Wow you’re really good with dogs! Would you want to help out around here?” Hansol looks up at Minghao with pleading eyes.

“Can I?”

“Well… we wouldn’t be able to pay you, but…” Hansol scratches his head.

“That’s fine! I would love volunteering here. Especially since I don’t have money to care for a dog right now.”

“Really?!” Hansol jumps around a bit. How this guy has more energy from that run, is seriously the world’s eighth wonder. “That would be great! Dude I’m pumped! Let me go find the volunteer form.”

 

“Hey! Want to eat ramen at my place? I cooked up too many noodles and broth.” Mingyu brings up.

This man actually made the broth. “How can you over cook in this heat?”

“I… just have a bad habit of cooking more than I can eat.” The taller man fidgets.

“Can Seokmin come too? I feel like he would enjoy it too.”

There’s a slight pause. “Okay.”

Minghao does a retake. “Did you not want Seokmin to come along?” Before Mingyu gets a chance to respond, Minghao’s phone rings. It’s his friend from home. “Sorry Mingyu, I need to take this.” Mingyu nods.

“Hello? Seungkwan?”

“Minghao! I need your advice!”

“Is this going to take long?”

“Sorry, were you in the middle of doing something? I can call later if you’re out.” The friend apologizes.

“It’s fine. Tell me everything.” He mouths to Mingyu, ‘sorry another time’. Mingyu waves bye to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAN YOU BELIEVE SEUNGKWAN COCKBLOCKED GYUHAO? lol


	28. July Ice Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monthly work birthday celebration, this time with ice cream, SINCE IT'S SUMMER

“GUYS IT’S ANOTHER ICE CREAM DAY!!” Soonyoung bursts through the door of the soil lab.

Mingyu nearly drops his box of soil. “Soonyoung!” Minghao snickers. “Minghao!”

“I’ve done nothing but sit here.”

“Exactly. Don’t you have any plants to water or kill?”

“I came in early this morning to take care of all of that.” Minghao crosses his legs.

“Well come in later.”

Soonyoung rolls his eyes at their discussion. “Okay love birds. I’ve delivered my news. See ya.”

“WE’RE NOT LOVE BIRDS!”

“And that’s exactly why you answered at the same time.” Soonyoung exits finger gunning at the both of them.

The two throw disgusted grunts at each other.

 

“Wonwoo! Your name is on this list! Why didn’t you tell me your birthday?”

“Because that list is an invasion of privacy. I don’t want you hooligans doing something to my computer. I already get enough shenanigans from my housemates.” He deeply sighs.

“But I would’ve made you cupcakes!” Mingyu exclaims.

Wonwoo finally turns around to face them. “Please no. Junhui and Soonyoung make enough sweets for me to gain cavities just thinking about it.” In his hands, is a bowl of whip cream piled high to reach his nose, possibly some ice cream, chocolate syrup pond, and sprinkle mountains. If possible the only healthy thing in the bowl is the ice cream.

Mingyu and Minghao exchange looks of disgusted horror at the pile of sweets in Wonwoo’s hand. “Are you actually going to eat that?”

“Of course he will! Wonu is such a good friend.” Soonyoung wraps his arm over Wonwoo’s shoulder. “It’s to make up for the lack of cake from me this year.” The man deeply sighs again.

A click comes from behind Minghao and Mingyu. “Smile for the camera Wonwoo.” Jeonghan takes a photo of the ice cream monstrosity being slowly devoured. “Oh, that turned out well. I’ll send it to Junhui for you.” Wonwoo takes everything with the poker face.

If anyone asked Minghao who the most inspiring person in his life is, he would answer Wonwoo. That man can eat ridiculous sweets without making a single face. Honestly, also throw in the fact that Wonwoo is neither sick or hyper from that much sugar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp... i have a lot of things to catch up on for this.


	29. Shittycado

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it all starts with an avocado

Jeonghan looks up from his lunch, “Hey what should I do with a slightly browning avocado?”

“Those are really good to make guacamole from.” Mingyu inputs.

“Just mix up the brown bits into the rest of the avocado. Then eat it,” Seokmin suggests.

“Have you tried hot sauce on it?” Soonyoung suggests in between bites of his raw turnips.

A spoon drops. Everyone blinks at the speaker. Jihoon is the first to recover. “Soonyoung, the fuck? Junhui has been influencing you, hasn’t he?”

“Although my husband doesn’t go mixing around food like that.” Wonwoo nibbles on his microwaved chicken steak thoughtfully. “If he did, he would probably lose his job.”

Mingyu and Minghao drop their lunches. “What?!”

“Hm? Oh, Junhui helps come up with new flavors for his company. Flavors like that would automatically be rejected.”

“Do you think he could help me with my cooking?”

“Mingyu, Junhui can’t teach Soonyoung how to keep good tastes.” Wonwoo sighs.

Soonyoung pouts, “I am right here.”

“It’s probably because all of his taste buds died from all his atrocious creations.” Jihoon snarks.

“So, if one ate a brown avocado that would be the case of shittycado.” Soonyoung giggles at Seokmin’s comment.

“Seokmin what?”

“Never mind you can ignore me.”

Jeonghan stares down the hot sauce suggester, “Soonyoung, do you ever get fire hole?”

“What.”

 “You have a low tolerance of spicy food, so I figured you would get fire hole often.” Minghao cannot believe this conversation is happening at lunch without a single care.

“…No. I try to avoid having that happen after the incident that left my butt hole scarred for life.”

“Jesus. Soonyoung. I’m trying to eat.” Jihoon sighs. “This is my cue to leave.” He grabs his empty yogurt and leaves the table.

“See ya Jihoon!”

“How does one solve fiery butthole?” Minghao thinks the question is a joke until he turns to look at Mingyu. The latter’s face is full of pure curiosity.

“I suppose you would just have to sit yourself down in a tub of milk.”

“Like a bathtub?”

Soonyoung nods. “I don’t think sitting in a bucket of milk would be effective, unless you’re that flexible.”

Seokmin ponders, “So just constantly dunking your bottom or just sitting in a tub of milk?”

Wonwoo snorts. Just why is no one stopping this ridiculous conversation?

Jeonghan smiles not-so-innocently toward Minghao, “Which do you think would be more effective, Mr. Engineer?”

“Nope. No idea. Not my field of expertise. I do not deal with human waste.” He glances at the clock. “Would you look at the time. I gotta go water the tomatoes again! Bye!” Minghao doesn’t think he can exit the cafeteria fast enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was an actual conversation that i had with my coworkers. poop jokes still happen apparently no matter what age you are


	30. Coffee Shop 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minghao meets up with Seokmin outside of work

It’s a late quiet Saturday morning in July.

The aesthetics of this coffee shop are a bit odd. It’s like they couldn’t decide between small diner set up or hole in the wall book shop.

It’s probably the fourth time Minghao has left his apartment since moving in.

Upon discovery that Minghao has done zero hobbies outside of his apartment (why did he trust Jeonghan with that information?), Seokmin insisted that he meet him at this coffee shop. Seokmin brought Minghao to introduce him to the former’s neighborhood. It’s a quaint area.  There are lots of local small shops.

There’s a very done looking boy running the cashier station. Minghao remembers feeling that done with his job in college. Being a bookstore worker wasn’t bad for the most part, until students would come in crowds to buy their textbooks. He checks his phone. It’s 10:30 and Seokmin still has 15 min before the meeting time. Minghao sips his chai latte. There’s some time for him to take photos. There’s not many people here.

He pulls out his camera from his messenger bag. First, he takes some photos of his drink. Then of his table. A few shots of the shop and its strange aesthetics. He reviews the photos. One of these days he’ll save up for one of those nice dslr cameras. For now, his point and shoot camera will do.

The bells on the entryway jingle noisily. Seokmin rushes into the coffee shop. “Minghao! Did I make you wait long?” He still has bed hair and bags under his eyes.

“Are you sure we should be meeting? You look exhausted.”

“It’s fine!” He puts up a hand to whisper, “Let me get some coffee pumping into my system. Do you think they’ll sell me espresso to put into an iv drip?”

“Just go get your coffee.” Minghao pushes the other away with a chuckle. He resumes to reviewing his photos. Suddenly his thumb spams the zoom in key. The clicking comes to an abrupt stop. Impossible. A familiar short man can be seen in the background of the shop window. Wait, it’s not fully impossible. He vaguely remembers hearing that Jihoon lives in the same complex as Seokmin. But why would Jihoon be here?

“Whoa do you take professional pictures?” Seokmin appears with his drink and a muffin. The steam rises from the coffee lid.

“Ah, no. It’s just a small hobby. I don’t have money for one those really nice cameras.” He decides to ask the question bothering him, “Do you know why Jihoon is here?”

“Oh, he works at a music shop nearby here. But I need to show you around the neighborhood especially since you have your camera.”

“Wait! You don’t need to go that far for me!”

“Why not? I invited you specifically to show around.” Seokmin grabs his arm, “C’mon! Let’s go before it gets too hot out.”


	31. Moist

It’s 3:30. The four leave together for once.

“Eew. You can just feel the humidity.” Seokmin whines upon stepping outside the door.

“It’s moist out.” Mingyu adds on, wiping a bead of sweat off his brow.

Jihoon flips, “Of all words you could’ve used it was that one?!”

Mingyu turns to fourth member of the group, “Okay, then Minghao how would you describe this?”

The only word that comes to his mind is the word for sticky in Mandarin, “Sticky.”

“Seokmin?”

“Humid.” The walking sun contemplates, “Just hearing moist makes me think of Earth is just breathing on me.”

“I don’t want that image,” Jihoon deadpans. Minghao giggles.

“Oh, or like the feeling on your skin after leaving the pool,” Mingyu points out.

“Guys.”

Mingyu continues commenting, “Wait, I think it’s more like the fogging on a window from someone’s breath.”

“Pudding?”

“That does help in making those cake mix box cakes moister.” What is he a baker in his spare time too?

“ **Guys.** ”

 “What else is moist?” Minghao ponders, intrigued by the other two’s thought process.

“Frog skin!” Seokmin excitedly adds.

“Ugggh. Seokmin, you’re not allowed anywhere near me on the bus.” Jihoon groans, pulling his face. “And the rest of you have you used up your quota for that word for the WEEK,” He aggressively points to the other two. “If I hear that word from your lips for the rest of the week I’m sending you off to Jeonghan.”

The two exchange glances with each other. It’s Tuesday. It’s going to be a looong week. 

 

Minghao comes in at six thirty to check on the lettuce. He’s lucky they haven’t bolted yet, even though it’s ridiculously humid in this green house. Hopefully Sandra will be able to fix the controls for this greenhouse when she comes in later.

He stares at the thirty-six pots. It’s going to be a long morning of quality scoring and pH checking. There’s a few fungus gnats flying around. Looks like he needs to grab more fly traps from the headhouse along with the saucers.

 

He’s on the last three samples of his data collection when he suddenly feels a breath tickles the back of his neck. “Moooist.”. 

He screams nearly dropping the pH meter. “MINGYU!”

“Whoops sorry.” The other sheepishly grins.

“Is everything okay?” Sandra pokes her head out of her office.

“Sorry, Sandra. I wasn’t expecting Mingyu so early today.”

“Oooh. You are here early today Mingyu. Any reason?”

“Not particularly.”

“If you insist.” She hums, returning back to the office. Minghao swears there’s a glint in the greenhouse manager’s eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow. i'm back to adding chapters again to this. let's see how long this laasts


	32. School Cheer

Mingyu peeks his head into Greenhouse 7, “Hey.” He instinctively ducks his head back behind the door in time. “Minghao wanna see something interesting?”

“When will you stop coming in here while I’m watering?” The latter deflects but still continues watering the tomatoes.

“Okay but Seokmin just showed me something really interesting the other day, and I thought you would get a kick out of it.”

“Oh? What kind of interesting thing?”

“It involves Jihoon.”

“I’m in.”

 

“Watch Jihoon carefully after he puts down the pipet.” As soon Jihoon puts down his pipet, “O! H!” Minghao jumps at the loudness.

“I! O!” Jihoon instantly puts his arms up to form the I and o without a second thought. Upon the o ending, he startles himself. He whips his head searching for the source of the call.

Minghao jaw drops.

Mingyu, of course, forgets to hide upon announcing, causing Jihoon to lock on to the tall man. “Mingyu Kim.”

“Shit.” The taller man starts pushing Minghao, “Run!”

“No running in the lab! This is a professional place, you twats!”

“But you’re running too!”

“Wonwoo start running the rest of the PCR as I teach them a lesson!” Jihoon calls back, as he exits the lab. He immediately hisses in the cubicle area, “MIngyu no yelling out here!”

Minghao rushes past all the cubicles with Mingyu hot on his heels. Luckily for them all the other employees in their office are in meetings. As soon they leave the office, Mingyu speeds off, dragging Minghao down the stairs. Some of the other workers spare them a confused look. He looks at the top of the stairs where Jihoon is peering down like an overlord.

 

They’re both collecting their breaths in the tunnel connecting building B to building F.

“So why was that Jihoon’s reflexive response?”

“Apparently at his alumni they yell that as a cheer and a greeting. He was quite spirited, so he’s used to it.”

“What school did he attend again?”

“The Ohio State University.”

“How pretentious sounding.”

“Right?” The two look at each other and burst out laughing.

“The.”

“Honestly what kind of school?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops.... they're all short chapterss.... but i hope you enjoy the silliness!


	33. Wish Grill

“Yo, do you wanna join our lunch excursion?” Seokmin pokes his head into the soil lab.

Mingyu asks, “What are you getting?”

“We’re going to this place called Absolute BBQ-Indian wish grill!”

Minghao puts down the bottle he was working with. “Wait. That’s seriously the name of the place?”

“Yeah! Incredible, right?”

“Is it any good?”

Seokmin chuckles, “No idea. Half the reviews are all from these people with the exact same complaint. Even funnier is that their last name are all Reddy.”

“Shut up.” Seokmin whips out his phone to show them the reviews. Minghao and Mingyu scroll through reviews. “This is incredible.” Minghao smiles in disbelief.

Mingyu squirms looking at the low hygiene ratings, “Once we eat here, we can actually put in credible reviews. Considering that our stomachs don’t kill us first.”

“Meet up by Jihoon’s lab around 11:20. The place opens at 11:30.”

“Sounds good!”

 

Jeonghan examines the group, “Okay everyone split up. My car isn’t going to fit seven of us.”

“What if I got in the trunk?” Mingyu offers.

Jihoon scoffs, “You of all people should not even suggest that.”

“I don’t know what kind of car you think I drive but no trunk of a compact car would fit you.”

“Good thing I brought my keys then.” Wonwoo jingles his keys.

“Shotgun!”  Soonyoung dashes to a green Toyota.

“Ohh I’m curious as to how Wonwoo drives.” Mingyu races to Wonwoo’s car with Minghao following close behind.

“Looks like you guys are with me,” Jeonghan grins. Jihoon sighs.

 

“Okay guys, if you need diapers after this let me know!”

“Soonyoung what?!” The car swerves from Mingyu kicking the back of Wonwoo’s seat.

“Mingyu!”

“Sorry!”

“Well it’s always good to come prepared you know? I don’t want to take a shit in my pants while at work.”

“Wonwoo, how do you deal with him?”

“The same way I always do. With internal judgment and ignore until he waits for a response.” The driver deadpans.

“You’re truly someone to be feared Wonwoo Jeon.” Minghao leans back in his seat.

“I can hear you ALL.”

The car pulls up to a strip of stores and restaurants. The place doesn’t look too sketchy, but there’s definitely not a lot of cars around.

“It’s 11:35. Let’s go!” Soonyoung puts his hands on the door handle.

“Soonyoung hurry up!” Jihoon hollers as the rest gather behind the first guest.

Soonyoung turns around a bit nervously, “The door won’t open.”

“Try knocking. See if the staff is in the back.”

Wonwoo peers into the shop, “I don’t see anyone.” Soonyoung knocks politely for a bit. Then a bit harder. “Weird.”

Minghao glances at his phone screen, “But it’s now 11:37.”

“I’m too hungry for this.” Jihoon pouts, way too cutely for a nearly 30-year-old person.

“Is there another Indian place nearby? Cause clearly no one is here even though Google says it opens at 11:30.”

“Oooh. There’s a place called Taj Mahal. It’s already open. Only five minutes away.”

“Let’s go.” Jihoon starts pulling at the door of Jeonghan’s car.

“Go! Go!” Soonyoung crows already back in Wonwoo’s car. The rest scramble back to the cars.

Seokmin pulls Minghao into Jeonghan’s car.

“Seokmin?”

“C’mon!” The two clamber into the backseat. “It’ll be more fun with us.”

“But it’s a short ride compared to Wish Grill from work.”

“Doesn’t matter. There’s better music in this car.” Jeonghan turns up the sound system. Heavy bass booms through the speakers.

“Whoa I don’t recognize this song.”

“That’s because Jihoon wrote it.” Jeonghan rustles the shorter man’s hair. “Our Jihoon is so good with music composition.”

“Drive faster.” He brushes off the driver’s hand. “I want my Indian food. Give me my tikki masala.”

“Jihoon is the definition of hangry.” Seokmin helpfully supplies.

Minghao looks out the window as they park. “Good thing we’re here.”

“FOOD.” Jihoon zooms out of the car and into the restaurant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Indian food is great and yes i did have a coworker bring up that he brought diapers for the aftereffect of it.


End file.
